Pope Benedict XVI, beset by drab weather and diminutive crowds, ended a pilgrimage to Austria on Sunday by reminding Europeans of their Christian heritage as they grapple with immigration and Islam. Bereft of huge throngs of adoring pilgrims like the 1 million Brazilians who turned out to see him in May, the German-born pontiff appealed to far smaller gatherings of believers in mostly Catholic Austria not to discard their faith.
In a farewell speech, he urged Austrians "to bring the traditional values of the continent — values shaped by the Christian faith — to European institutions."
Despite a chilly rainfall, about 15,000 people packed the square outside Vienna's St. Stephen's Cathedral for Sunday's papal Mass, according to official estimates. Another 12,000 cheering pilgrims flocked to an abbey on the outskirts of the capital to see the pope.
But the turnout was low, considering 200,000 Viennese identify themselves as Catholics.
Benedict's three-day visit was a personal mission to woo them back. Yet throughout the weekend, uninterested passers-by were seen strolling nonchalantly past giant video screens showing the pontiff.
At the outset, the Vatican had said the pope cared little about crowd size. It became clear from the planning, however, that relatively compact venues were chosen over one of Vienna's sprawling parks, where the small turnout would have been more obvious.
Thousands of Austrian Catholics have formally renounced their church affiliations in recent years, citing disgust with clergy sex scandals or displeasure over a highly unpopular government-imposed church tax.
Others contend the church is out of touch on issues such as forbidding priests to marry. We Are Church, an organization of lay Catholics, displayed a banner outside the cathedral on Sunday that read simply: "We demand reforms."
"The church is there for the people, not the people for the church," said the group's chairman, Hans Peter Hurka.
But the atmosphere was festive at Benedict's brief stop at the medieval Heiligenkreuz Abbey just south of Vienna, where pilgrims waved giant foam hands and young former drug addicts sang and danced on an outdoor stage.
"At first I didn't feel like coming, but it was definitely worth it — he has an incredibly positive charisma," said Helga Bertoni, among the faithful who packed the abbey's courtyard.
In his homily at Sunday's Mass, Benedict pressed believers to cling to their faith. "We need a relationship that sustains us, that gives direction and content to our lives," he said.
The pope also urged the faithful to set aside Sundays to devote themselves to Christ's teachings and "create oases of selfless love in a world where so often only power and wealth seem to count for anything."
A few weak rays of sunshine poked through as Benedict delivered his weekly Angelus prayer on the plaza, but a gust of wind blew his white skullcap off his head, sending aides scrambling to retrieve it.
"The wind has spoken for itself," the pope joked as more gusts tugged at the crimson mantel around his shoulders and repeatedly flipped it up over his face.
Before returning to Rome, Benedict joined President Heinz Fischer at a meeting with volunteers, hailing them as "people who truly contribute to giving our society a humane and Christian face."
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