By Roy Ramos
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines
Thousands of Filipinos gathered along Manila roads Monday as Pope Francis’ convoy headed toward the airport at the end of his five-day visit to the country.
Some shouted "Viva Santo Papa!" and "Pope Francis, we love you!" Around a thousand schoolchildren then danced and sang as the pontiff boarded the plane that took off for Rome at around 10 a.m. (0200GMT) during fair weather conditions.
Manila’s archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle told a press briefing after Francis’ departure that Filipinos overwhelmed by the visit should “spend time relishing the event,” which he called “an act of communion, an act of solidarity” and “a miracle in itself.”
“The event is so deep -- so deep. There is so much to reflect on, so much to pray over, so much to learn,” the state-run Philippine News Agency quoted Tagle as saying.
“And it is only in meditation, in prayer, in silence, that we can really get to the depths of the profound meaning of this event,” he added.
Voicing hopes that Francis would visit again, he said the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines had formally invited the Pope to attend a Eucharistic congress to be held in the central island province of Cebu in January next year.
Urging those touched by the pontiff’s visit to reflect on its spiritual and missionary message, Tagle added, “Let us think about it. Let us feel what we have thought about and then do according to the impulse of ideas and a profound spiritual and pastoral challenges.”
Pilardo Escobar, a university employee in southern Zamboanga City, told The Anadolu Agency, "He [Pope Francis] really inspired us with his thoughts. We hope Filipinos will continue to remember what the pontiff said during his visit.”
The papal visit had generated "pope fever" across the archipelago, impressing not only Catholic Filipinos but also indigenous Muslims, some of whom were especially moved by the support he expressed for peace efforts in the country’s south.
After decades of armed conflict in Mindanao - the Philippines’ second largest island - the country’s one-time largest rebel group -- the Moro Islamic Liberation Front -- inked a March 2014 peace deal with the government which brought to an end 17 years of negotiations.
Omar Mandi, a local Muslim trader in Zamboanga, told AA, "His statement on the peace process was re-assuring and a big boost to the ongoing peace process."
In a press statement, the government’s chief negotiator, Miriam Coronel-Ferrer, commended Pope Francis for his compassion by saying, “He is with us in our struggle for peace and justice — in Mindanao, in our everyday life, among the poor and dispossessed in our society.”
Francis had dedicated his trip to the Philippines to the poor – visiting street children and the survivors of 2013’s Typhoon Yolanda and criticizing the corruption that robs the most vulnerable of opportunity.
