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'Grandpa Francis': A nation remembers the Pope who braved a typhoon for them 4 hours ago Share Save Joel Guinto BBC News Reporting from Singapore Virma Simonette BBC News Reporting from Manila Share Save Getty Images Pope Francis waves to well wishers after his mass in Tacloban in 2015 Lashed by an off-season typhoon, Pope Francis stepped out on a rain-soaked makeshift stage in front of hundreds of thousands of weeping pilgrims in the central Philippines. Organisers had warned him to cancel the 2015 open air mass in Tacloban as the weather had worsened. But Francis was not be put off: he flew through the typhoon from the capital Manila to hold the mass in memory of more than 6,000 people who had perished in Super Typhoon Haiyan in 2013.
As he rode in his popemobile around the vast airport carpark waving to the crowd, palm trees swayed furiously in the storm. In Asia's largest Roman Catholic country, all Popes enjoy rockstar status. Here, religion brought by Spanish colonisers in the 16th Century has become woven into the very fabric of society, and given a distinctly Filipino intensity and colour.
In some towns devotees are even nailed to the cross at Easter to imitate the suffering of Jesus. But with his mass in Tacloban - along with his informal, down-to-earth manner and calls for justice - Pope Francis won particular affection among the Philippine's 80 million Catholics. Many have described Monday's death of the man they called Lolo Kiko, or Grandpa Francis, as leaving them feeling like orphans.
Masses to mourn him have been held across the country. "So many of you have lost everything," he told those who had gathered in the rain to listen to his sermon more than 10 years ago. "I do not know what to tell you.
But surely He knows what to tell you! So many of you have lost members of your family. I can only be silent; I accompany you silently, with my heart." And then tragedy struck.
Getty Images A steel scaffolding collapsed, killing 27-year-old Kristel, an...
Joel Guinto.
