Lourdes, France - More than 150,000 people gathered in the southern French pilgrimage site of Lourdes on Sunday as Pope Benedict XVI celebrated a Mass to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the appearance of the Virgin Mary to a young peasant girl.

The open-air Mass was the symbolic high point of the 81-year-old pontiff's four-day visit to France, his first since he was elected to succeed the popular John Paul II in April 
2005.

Paris/Lourdes, France  - Following a torchlight procession late Saturday through the pilgrimage site of Lourdes in southern France, Pope Benedict XVI ended his second day in the country with a plea not to forget victims of violence, hatred and poverty.

"This procession is a time of great ecclesial joy but also a time of seriousness: the intentions we bring emphasize our profound communion with all those who suffer," he told the tens of thousands of marchers who braved the unseasonable cold and rain to take part.

Paris - Organizers expect around 200,000 people to participate in a open-air mass celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI at on Saturday.

The 81-year-old pontiff will celebrate mass at Esplanade des Invalides park.

The pope will then travel to the pilgrimage site of Lourdes in southern France. The Catholic Church this year celebrates the 150th anniversary of the apparition of the Virgin Mary to a 14-year-old peasant girl, Bernadette Soubirous, in 1858.

Paris - Pope Benedict XVI spent the first day of his four-day visit to fiercely secular France trying to revive Catholicism in a country known traditionally as "the Church's eldest daughter."

Addressing 10,000 young people gathered late Friday in the square in front of Notre Dame Cathedral while tens of thousands of others watched the event on large screens erected around the venerable church, the 81-year-old Pontiff resurrected a phrase used by his popular predecessor John Paul II: "Do not be afraid!"

Paris  - The search for God is the foundation of European culture and a fundamental expression of human reason, Pope Benedict XVI said Friday in Paris.

"Creation is rational," the pope said in a speech delivered on the first day of his four-day visit to France.

"A purely positivistic culture which tried to drive the question concerning God into the subjective realm, as being unscientific, would be the capitulation of reason... and hence a disaster for humanity."

Rome - Pope Benedict XVI on Friday morning departed from Rome's Fiumcino airport and headed for France for a four day visit - his first there as pontiff.

Benedict left Rome on an Alitalia Airbus A321 jet at 9:15 am (0715 GMT) and was expected to arrive at Paris' Orly airport around two hours later, an airport spokesman said.

The trip, Benedict's 10th abroad since his 2005 election, includes talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

The French president, together with his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, was scheduled to welcome the pontiff upon his arrival at Orly.