The Philippines likely made history again after some 6 million people attended the concluding Eucharistic celebration of Pope Francis at the Quirino Grandstand on Sunday afternoon.
Fr. Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, said the number was the “largest in the history of the pope visit” and recalled the crowd then gathered to see Pope John Paul II in 1995 estimated at that time to be around 4million or 5 million.
“If the numbers are correct, 6million or 7 million, we have never seen another such larger crowd. At the World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro [we had] 2 million or so. But these 6 million, never,” Lombardi told news reporters shortly after a news briefing at the Diamond Hotel, which serves as the Vatican Media Center for papal visit 2015.
As of 5:30 p.m., the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority estimated the throngs of people numbering around 6 million.