A crowd estimated at up to one million people rose into a religious and patriotic fervour on Monday (4 June) when Pope John Paul the Second conducted a three-hour Mass at Czestochowa, Poland's holiest shrine. The Pope said his visit meant he had kept a vow made soon after he took office last year that he would come to this spot. He reminded his immense audience that the late Pope Paul the Sixth had wanted to visit this place as a pilgrim. Observers considered this reference an indirect comment on Poland's communist government, because Pope Paul had twice been denied permission to come to Poland. Mike McKay of the BBC reports on the Pope's visit to the shrine.