BBC: Around 250,000 worshippers have turned out to hear Pope Benedict XVI celebrate an open-air mass in Paris.
Many people spent the night at the Invalides complex, south of the river Seine in the French capital, waiting to hear him speak.
It is the pontiff's first visit to France since his election in 2005.
Later, the Pope will fly to the pilgrimage site of Lourdes, where the faithful believe the Virgin Mary appeared to a young girl 150 years ago.
France is a Roman Catholic country, but Sunday Mass attendance is now below 10% and strict laws separate church and state.
'Pagan' idols
The Pope told the crowds he was delighted to be in their country, before going on to condemn what he described as a modern-day plague in the passion for power, possessions and money.
"Has not our modern world created its own idols?" he said in his address.
"Has it not imitated, perhaps inadvertently, the pagans of antiquity, by diverting man from his true end, from the joy of living eternally with God," he asked.
He then added: "Have not money, the thirst for possessions, for power and even for knowledge, diverted man from his true destiny?" Pope Celebrates Huge Paris Mass >>> | September 13, 2008
BBC:
Pope Benedict XVI has celebrated an open-air mass in the French town of Lourdes, one of the most revered Roman Catholic shrines >>> | September 14, 2008
BBC:
Pope Benedict XVI has begun his first tour of France since taking office >>> | September 13, 2008
GALA.fr:
Le Pape s’habille en Prada. Sa Sainteté serait même une véritable icône… de mode! La rumeur s'enrichit de détails. Non content d’avoir remercié l'habilleur de Jean-Paul II -bien trop sobre- et nommé un nouveau créateur -porté sur les bordures, les pompons et les chaussures rouges-, le Souverain Pontife aurait été aperçu portant des lunettes de soleil Gucci. Pour couronner le tout, Benoît XVI ne quitterait pas son iPod d’Apple gravé à son nom, et écouterait en boucle la programmation de Radio-Vatican et les cantates sacrées de Jean-Sébastien Bach…Amen? Les secrets de la garde-robe du Pape >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Broché) >>>
The Dawning of a new Dark Age (Relié) >>>
