Faltering Pope tells the adoring crowd his return to Poland is in God's hands

In a tearful farewell Mass in Krakow, Pope John Paul II told more than two million people yesterday that he would like to return one day, but that it was in the hands of God.

The ailing, 82-year-old Pope brushed aside any notion that he might step down. He grew weaker during the three-hour service, although adoring throngs raised his spirits by chanting his name on his ninth papal trip to his homeland.

"God bless you," he said to applause from the vast throng filling the Blonia meadows. Then, choosing his words carefully, he said, "I would like to add 'until next time' but this is entirely in God's hands."

The Polish pilgrimage has been both a trip down memory lane for the Pope ­ who visited his old house, the quarry where he laboured during the Nazi occupation and his family's graves ­ and an opportunity to underline Poland's deeply Catholic traditions as it moves to join heavily secular Western Europe.

The journey has emphasised the nation'sbond with John Paul, who is the first Polish Pope and who successfully challenged communism. "You are great. We love you. Stay with us," the crowd shouted.

"I say, you are telling me to desert Rome!" the Pontiff responded with tears in his eyes. Many in the crowd, fearing it would be the Pope's last visit, were teary-eyed, too.

Later, he made a rare mention of his own mortality during an unscheduled stop at a church where he had served as pastor from 1948-50.

"I ask for prayers for all the current parishioners at St Florian, a prayer for the living and the dead, and a prayer for the Pope during his lifetime and after his death," he said.

The crowd was the biggest for a papal Mass since four million people attended a 1995 service in Manila in the Philippines. Previous record crowds in Poland have numbered about one million since the Pope began returning to his homeland after assuming the papacy in 1978.

The Pope looked uncomfortable sitting at the altar in robes in the heat. His hands trembled and he often slurred his words, symptoms of Parkinson's disease, during the long ceremony, which included the beatification of three priests and a nun.

One of those beatified was an archbishop of Warsaw, Zygmunt Szczesny Felinski, who was deported to Russia in 1863 by Warsaw's czarist rulers as punishment for his loyalty to the Vatican. He remained in exile for 20 years and was never allowed to regain his position in Warsaw before dying in 1895.

The Pope warned the crowds of the dangers posed when man "puts himself in God's place" ­ referring to genetic engineering and euthanasia ­ and by encroachments on traditional church teaching.

Modern man often "lives as if God does not exist", the Pope said, adding: "[Man] claims for himself the Creator's right to interfere in the mystery of human life. He wishes to determine human life through genetic manipulation and establish the limit of death.

"When the noisy propaganda of liberalism, of freedom without truth or responsibility, grows stronger in our country, too, the shepherds of the Church cannot fail to proclaim the one fail-proof philosophy of freedom, which is the truth of the cross of Christ."

The message reaches a nation increasingly unhappy at a capitalist system that has created social and economic disparities, and plays into growing sentiments among conservative Catholics that political decisions made on issues such as abortion to integrate Poland with Western Europe will spoil their country. The crowd responded to his homily with chants of "Thank you".

Earlier, as he arrived for the Mass, the Pope circled the crowd in his popemobile as pilgrims sang choruses of "Poland loves you, Krakow loves you," a song written for a planned Mass at Blonia in 1999 that the Pope had cancelled because he had flu.

Magda Fidej, 52, from Krakow, said: "I have tears in my eyes today. I'm afraid I'll cry when I see him passing. It's such a distinction from God that the Pope is Polis.," Elzbieta Krawczykiewicz, a retired pharmacist, said, "This visit is sure to give him new strength because it's his beloved Krakow, because it's Poland."

Later, the Pope visited Wawel Cathedral, where he had celebrated Mass on becoming a priest in 1946. He sat for 30 minutes at an altar named after Poland's patron saint, Saint Stanislaw, in silent meditation. He then went to Rakowice Cemetery, and, from his popemobile, blessed the graves of his parents and older brother.

The four-day visit ends today when the Pope visits a sanctuary 27 miles outside Krakow. He is scheduled to leave for Rome in the early evening.