MANILA, Philippines – Words of gratitude overflowed late Sunday afternoon after Pope Francis concluded his final Mass in the Philippines at the Quirino Grandstand in Luneta Park, Manila.
“Pope, we love you,” echoed through the grandstand as Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle and Archbishop Socrates Villegas, Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop and CBCP president, thanked the pontiff.
“You are our friend, our inspiration. You are our raincoat in the rain. Pope Francis, we love you,” Villegas said in a message of gratitude soon after the pontiff concluded the Mass.
For his part, Cardinal Tagle said: “In behalf of millions of Filipinos here today, muchisimas gracias, maraming, maraming salamat po.”
The Pope smiled as he heard more praises from Tagle and Villegas.
“You are typhoon proof…you are our sunshine. We are not feeling the rain,” said Villegas.
“Every Filipino wants to go with you, not to Rome but to peripheries,” Tagle said. “Wherever you see the light of Jesus, remember the Filipinos are with you in spreading that light.”
