Hundreds of thousands of young pilgrims gathered yesterday in blistering heat on a vast dusty esplanade near Madrid to hear a prayer vigil led by Pope Benedict XVI and then spend the night under the stars.
Emergency services said they had attended to almost 700 people by early evening, mostly for dizziness, fainting and heatstroke as temperatures soared to 39˚C in the Cuatro Vientos air base.
In a rock festival-style atmosphere, the youths, some of whom had arrived early in the morning, sprawled across the ground with backpacks and sleeping bags, many waving national flags, as pop music blared out from loudspeakers.
They propped up beach parasols, umbrellas and even plastic sheets and blankets to try to fend off the punishing August sun.
Organisers have set up some 2,000 water fountains on the esplanade, the size of 48 football pitches, and fire trucks sprayed water over the sweltering pilgrims.
Some pilgrims approached one of the vehicles shouting “Water, water, water!”
Organisers appealed to the faithful on microphones to keep their hats on, use sun cream and drink lots of water.
“Right now we’re overwhelmed,” said one harassed worker at a small field hospital at the edge of the esplanade, where dozens of weary pilgrims were waiting for treatment.
“Watch out, make way!” shouted police officers who were carrying a young woman to the hospital who had fainted.
The interior ministry in Madrid issued a warning to all Spanish residents to “stay indoors as much possible” as the country suffered one of the hottest days of the year.
The 84-year-old Pope held a prayer vigil yesterday evening at a white altar almost 200 metres long in front of a vast wave-shaped stage and under a giant parasol ‘tree’, made of interwoven golden rods.
The pilgrims were to spend the night in the open air at the base, eight kilometres southwest of Madrid, before Benedict celebrates the closing mass of the August 16-21 World Youth Day festival there this morning.
The head of the Roman Catholic Church earlier warned against “false gods” as he celebrated mass in Madrid’s Almudena Cathedral.
In white cassock and a white, gold-embroidered mitre, he entered the 19th century cathedral to celebrate mass for 6,000 young people preparing to join the priesthood.
“You may be shunned along with others who propose higher goals or who unmask the false gods before whom many now bow down,” the Pope warned the seminarians.
“Approach the priesthood only if you are firmly convinced that God is calling you to be his ministers, and if you are completely determined to exercise it in obedience to the Church’s precepts,” he said.
These include “the decision to live in celibacy for the sake of the kingdom of heaven and, leaving aside the world’s goods, live in austerity of life and sincere obedience, without pretence”.
Thousands of child abuse claims, to which the Pope made no direct reference, have forced the Roman Catholic Church to be more aware of the psychological maturity of those entering the priesthood.
The Pope drew a thunderous applause as he announced he would bestow an extremely rare honour on a Spanish saint, St John of Avila, by proclaiming him a doctor of the Church.
Only 33 doctors of the Church – reserved for figures of eminent doctrine and remarkable holiness – have been proclaimed since 1295, and the last was in 1997.