Hundreds of thousands take part in pope's open-air mass (2nd Lead)

Sep 13, 2008, 10:04 GMT

The sun rises over the historic Invalides complex in Paris before the start of an open-air mass held by Pope Benedict XVI (unseen) in Paris, France, 13 September 2008. The German-born pontiff arrived on 12 September for a four-day visit to France that will also lead him to Lourdes. The pope\'s visit coinciding with the 150th anniversary of the apparition of the virgin Mary in Lourdes. EPA/YOAN VALAT

Paris - More than 260,000 people took part in an open-air mass celebrated on Saturday by Pope Benedict XVI at the Esplanade des Invalides park in the heart of Paris, police said.

French Prime Minister Francois Fillon, Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie and Justice Minister Rachida Dati were among the celebrants, who also included about 60,000 young people who had spent the night on the Esplanade.

Thousands of others followed the event on giant screens set up on the Left Bank.

The archbishops of Paris, Lyon and Bordeaux were among 1,500 priests and 300 permanent deacons who concelebrated the mass with the 81-year-old pontiff, who is on the second day of a four-day visit to France.

It is his first trip to France since he was elected to succeed Pope John Paul II in 2005.

As he arrived at the Esplanade in the Popemobile, Benedict XVI was greeted by an enthusiastic throng, composed mostly of young people and families, who waved yellow and white pennants.

In a 20-minute homily, the pope warned the young about the worship of idols.

'Has not our modern world created its own idols? Has it not imitated, perhaps inadvertently, the pagans of antiquity by diverting Man from his true end?' he said.

'Have not money, the thirst for possessions, for power and even for knowledge, diverted man from his true destiny?'

Earlier Saturday, Benedict XVI visited the Institute de France, to which he has belonged since 1992, when he became a foreign member of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences.

In a brief address to his fellow members of the institute, the pope quoted the French writer Francois Rabelais in saying, ''Science without conscience brings only ruin to the soul'.'

The mass marked the end of his stay in Paris. Later Saturday, the pope will travel as a pilgrim to the pilgrimage site of Lourdes in southern France.

There, large crowds are expected to help him celebrate the 150th anniversary of the apparition of the Virgin Mary to a 14-year-old peasant girl, Bernadette Soubirous, in 1858.