{"id":9481,"date":"2015-01-19T02:36:00","date_gmt":"2015-01-19T02:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/the-philippines-farewell-to-visiting-pontiff-pope-francis-we-love-you-28694\/"},"modified":"2015-01-19T02:36:00","modified_gmt":"2015-01-19T02:36:00","slug":"the-philippines-farewell-to-visiting-pontiff-pope-francis-we-love-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/01\/the-philippines-farewell-to-visiting-pontiff-pope-francis-we-love-you\/","title":{"rendered":"The Philippines’ farewell to visiting pontiff: “Pope Francis, we love you!”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/p>\n

Manila, Philippines, Jan 18, 2015 \/ 07:36 pm (CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- The Pope departed the Philippines Monday morning from Villamor Air Base at a farewell ceremony where over 400 abandoned children from various welfare centers performed songs to bid him farewell.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cPope Francis, we love you!\u201d they said in a coordinated chant.<\/p>\n

\tThe Pope walked along a red carpet to his plane with Philippines president Benigno Aquino, making personal comments to several bishops, officials, and laity.<\/p>\n

\tHe also spoke to President Aquino one-on-one.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cI want to thank you, Mr. President, for the warm welcome,\u201d the Pope said Jan. 19. \u201cYou must have worked some extra hours.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tOn Sunday a massive crowd of 6 to 7 million gathered for his final Mass at Rizal Park in Manila. The Pope\u2019s homily stressed Christians\u2019 identity as God\u2019s children and called for the protection of the family against \u201cinsidious attacks and programs contrary to all that we hold true and sacred, all that is most beautiful and noble in our culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tBefore the Mass, Pope Francis attended a youth rally for tens of thousands of people at the University Santo Tomaso in Manila. He heard the heartbreaking testimony of two formerly homeless young adolescents. He urged everyone present to \u201clearn how to weep\u201d with those who suffer.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cIf you don\u2019t learn how to cry, you can\u2019t be good Christians,\u201d he emphasized.<\/p>\n

\tOn Saturday Pope Francis celebrated Mass near the Tacloban airport on the major island of Leyte, which suffered heavily in the December 2013 Supertyphoon Haiyan.<\/p>\n

\tHe set aside his prepared homily to speak to the congregation, many of whom had lost loved ones and homes in the disaster.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cI\u2019m here to be with you,\u201d he said. \u201cA little bit late, I have to say. But I\u2019m here. I\u2019ve come to tell you that Jesus is Lord. That Jesus never lets us down.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cWe have the security of knowing that we are not going to weaken in our faith, because Jesus has been there before us\u2026 In his passion, he assumed all our pain,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cSo many of you have lost everything\u2026 I don\u2019t know what to say to you. But the Lord does know what to say to you. Some of you have lost part of your families. All I can do is keep silent.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tThe Pope\u2019s visit to Leyte was cut short due to concerns about an incoming typhoon.<\/p>\n

\tDuring his welcoming ceremony at the Presidential Palace on Friday the Pope noted that in a few years the country will mark the 500th anniversary of the arrival of Christianity in the Philippines. He voiced hope that the Christian message will show \u201ccontinuing fruitfulness\u201d and \u201cinspire a society worthy of the goodness, dignity and aspirations of the Filipino people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tAt a Friday Mass for clergy, religious and seminarians at Manila\u2019s Cathedral of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, he stressed the \u201cpowerful missionary potential\u201d of the Philippines.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cFilipino culture has, in fact, been shaped by the imagination of faith. Filipinos everywhere are known for their love of God, their fervent piety and their warm devotion to Our Lady and her rosary,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\tThe Pope\u2019s Philippines visit and his visit to Sri Lanka lasted from Jan. 12-19. He was scheduled to return to Rome at 5:40 p.m. local time on Monday.<\/p>\n

\n<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Manila, Philippines, Jan 18, 2015 \/ 07:36 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- The Pope departed the Philippines Monday morning from Villamor Air Base at a farewell ceremony where over 400 abandoned children from various welfare centers performed songs to bid him fare…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asia-pacific"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Philippines' farewell to visiting pontiff: "Pope Francis, we love you!"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Manila, Philippines, Jan 18, 2015 \/ 07:36 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- The Pope departed the Philippines Monday morning from Villamor Air Base at a farewell ceremony where over 400 abandoned children from various welfare centers performed songs to bid him fare...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/01\/the-philippines-farewell-to-visiting-pontiff-pope-francis-we-love-you\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Philippines' farewell to visiting pontiff: "Pope Francis, we love you!"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Manila, Philippines, Jan 18, 2015 \/ 07:36 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- The Pope departed the Philippines Monday morning from Villamor Air Base at a farewell ceremony where over 400 abandoned children from various welfare centers performed songs to bid him fare...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/01\/the-philippines-farewell-to-visiting-pontiff-pope-francis-we-love-you\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Catholic News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-01-19T02:36:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/images\/size340\/Pope_smiling_with_Philippines_president_CNA.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"CNA Daily News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"CNA Daily News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/01\/the-philippines-farewell-to-visiting-pontiff-pope-francis-we-love-you\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/01\/the-philippines-farewell-to-visiting-pontiff-pope-francis-we-love-you\/\",\"name\":\"The Philippines' farewell to visiting pontiff: \\\"Pope Francis, we love you!\\\"\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-01-19T02:36:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-01-19T02:36:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1\"},\"description\":\"Manila, Philippines, Jan 18, 2015 \/ 07:36 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- The Pope departed the Philippines Monday morning from Villamor Air Base at a farewell ceremony where over 400 abandoned children from various welfare centers performed songs to bid him fare...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/01\/the-philippines-farewell-to-visiting-pontiff-pope-francis-we-love-you\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/01\/the-philippines-farewell-to-visiting-pontiff-pope-francis-we-love-you\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/01\/the-philippines-farewell-to-visiting-pontiff-pope-francis-we-love-you\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Philippines’ farewell to visiting pontiff: “Pope Francis, we love you!”\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/\",\"name\":\"Catholic News\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1\",\"name\":\"CNA Daily News\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"CNA Daily News\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/author\/cna-daily-news\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Philippines' farewell to visiting pontiff: \"Pope Francis, we love you!\"","description":"Manila, Philippines, Jan 18, 2015 \/ 07:36 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- The Pope departed the Philippines Monday morning from Villamor Air Base at a farewell ceremony where over 400 abandoned children from various welfare centers performed songs to bid him fare...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/01\/the-philippines-farewell-to-visiting-pontiff-pope-francis-we-love-you\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Philippines' farewell to visiting pontiff: \"Pope Francis, we love you!\"","og_description":"Manila, Philippines, Jan 18, 2015 \/ 07:36 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- The Pope departed the Philippines Monday morning from Villamor Air Base at a farewell ceremony where over 400 abandoned children from various welfare centers performed songs to bid him fare...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/01\/the-philippines-farewell-to-visiting-pontiff-pope-francis-we-love-you\/","og_site_name":"Catholic News","article_published_time":"2015-01-19T02:36:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/images\/size340\/Pope_smiling_with_Philippines_president_CNA.jpg"}],"author":"CNA Daily News","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"CNA Daily News","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/01\/the-philippines-farewell-to-visiting-pontiff-pope-francis-we-love-you\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/01\/the-philippines-farewell-to-visiting-pontiff-pope-francis-we-love-you\/","name":"The Philippines' farewell to visiting pontiff: \"Pope Francis, we love you!\"","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-01-19T02:36:00+00:00","dateModified":"2015-01-19T02:36:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1"},"description":"Manila, Philippines, Jan 18, 2015 \/ 07:36 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- The Pope departed the Philippines Monday morning from Villamor Air Base at a farewell ceremony where over 400 abandoned children from various welfare centers performed songs to bid him fare...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/01\/the-philippines-farewell-to-visiting-pontiff-pope-francis-we-love-you\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/01\/the-philippines-farewell-to-visiting-pontiff-pope-francis-we-love-you\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/01\/the-philippines-farewell-to-visiting-pontiff-pope-francis-we-love-you\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Philippines’ farewell to visiting pontiff: “Pope Francis, we love you!”"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/","name":"Catholic News","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1","name":"CNA Daily News","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"CNA Daily News"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/author\/cna-daily-news\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1031"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9481\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}