by Denis Barnett
LOURDES, France, Aug 15 (AFP) - Pope John Paul II issued a strong pro-life message during an open-air mass Sunday in Lourdes, the religious high point of a pilgrimage which has again seen his failing health betray him.
The 84-year-old pontiff cut passages from his prepared sermon at the shrine to the Virgin Mary in the French Pyrenees town, and struggled through the main part of a lengthy address in temperatures which reached 30 degrees Celsius.
"Help me," he whispered in Polish during the homily as he gestured to an aide, Monsignor Mieczyslaw Mokrzycki, for a glass of water, before adding: "I must continue!"
The multi-national crowd erupted into applause, many moved to tears at his apparent refusal to yield to the pain of Parkinson's disease, which has been all too evident during this 104th foreign visit of his pontificate.
The pope's message against abortion and euthanasia included a special appeal to women on the feast of the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus.
"To you women, falls the task of being sentinels of the invisible," he told the congregation of more than 300,000 people gathered for the mass on a large arena here and outside a nearby basilica.
Cries of "Viva Il Papa" rang out in support of the pope during the mass to celebrate the Feast of the Assumption, when Catholics believe Mary ascended into heaven at the end of her earthly life.
"I urgently appeal to all of you, dear brothers and sisters, to do everything in your power to ensure that life, each and every life, will be respected from conception to its natural end."
"Life is a sacred gift, and no one can presume to be its master," he cautioned.
After lunching with members of the French bishops' conference, the pope was later wheeled to the grotto to pray alone, watched by tens of thousands of pilgrims from the other side of the river Gave which runs through the sanctuary.
It was a powerful moment for John Paul II. He has a special devotion for the Virgin Mary, whom he has credited with saving his life in a failed assassination attempt in 1983.
He prayed in silence for around eight minutes, gazing up at the statue of Mary in a two metre high hollow, the exact spot where the Virgin is reputed to have appeared to a young local girl in 1858.
Cardinals and priests standing a respectful distance away then broke into "Salve Regina" in honour of the Virgin.
Then the pontiff departed for the regional airport at Tarbes 16 kilometres (10 miles) away, the roadside lined with pilgrims bidding him a tearful farewell.
He had concelebrated the mass, arriving in his popemobile to wild whoops of joy from pilgrims as he passed through the crowd, with hundreds of Catholic hierarchy, including 15 cardinals, 96 bishops and 1,200 priests on a giant altar at one end of the meadow.
French Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin also attended on behalf of his government.
Many pilgrims, who had been waiting several hours, cried "Papa, Papa" as the pontiff passed by, a stooped figure inside the glass of his special vehicle. He acknowledged them with an arm raised in blessing.
Confined to a wheelchair, like many others here, he has displayed worrying signs of his poor health since his arrival on Saturday. He tired quickly and at one stage alarmed aides when he stumbled while kneeling Saturday at the Grotto of the Apparitions.
Many pilgrims have expressed fears that this may well be his last foreign visit.
"I hope he can come to Ireland next year, but he's very frail, God bless him," said Teresa Hanamy from County Offaly, in Ireland.
The pope has been invited to attend an Orthodox Church celebration in Istanbul in November, and to Ireland next year. The Vatican, holding to its usual caution, has not confirmed any further foreign travel for the pope.
Normally, with his faltering health in mind, it leaves any confirmation of foreign visits until just a few weeks before the scheduled event.