Pope anoints sick at Lourdes, leaves France

Pope Benedict anointed and prayed for 10 ailing Roman Catholics yesterday during his final Mass at the Lourdes shrine in southwestern France whose waters are reputed to have the power of miraculous healing.

Patients on wheeled stretchers and elderly in wheelchairs, many huddled under blankets against the morning chill, joined an estimated crowd of over 60,000 faithful outside the basilica built over the grotto where the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared in 1858.

Although Lourdes is known for the 67 miracles the Catholic Church says have occurred there, Pope Benedict made no mention of them in his sermon on devotion to Mary. The anointing with consecrated oil was meant to bring spiritual healing, he said.

"Christ is not a healer in the manner of the world," the German-born Pontiff explained in his sermon. "Christ's presence comes to break the isolation which pain induces. Man no longer bears his burden alone."

Of the 10 he anointed, Pope Benedict addressed eight in French, one in English and one in German. Only three were well enough to walk up unaided and kneel before him as he applied the oil to their foreheads and hands.

Pope Benedict left for Rome after the Mass, the end of a four-day visit during which he encouraged a greater role for faith in French public life and told French bishops to make more space in their Church for traditionalist Catholics.

The Pope also urged the bishops to pursue serious dialogue with other religions but not waste time in talks that lead nowhere. This appeared to refer to relations with Muslims, whose five-million-strong minority in France is Europe's largest.