WORLD YOUTH DAY

Pope Draws 3 Million in Brazil

Francis asks bishops to reflect on why some have left.

Pope Francis drew a crowd of three million in Brazil for his final Mass in the country on Sunday, calling on bishops to reflect on why the church’s population has declined. In Brazil, the world’s largest Catholic country, the church’s population has dipped from 125 million to 123 million between 2000 and 2010, with the percentage of the Catholics in the country dropping from 74 percent to 65 percent. “Perhaps the church appeared too weak, perhaps too distant from their needs, perhaps too poor to respond to their concerns, perhaps too cold, perhaps too caught up with itself, perhaps a prisoner of its own rigid formulas,” Francis said. The pope is in Brazil for World Youth Day.