SAN GIOVANNI ROTONDO, Italy Tens of thousands of followers gathered here Sunday to watch a live broadcast from Rome, projected on five giant screens, of Pope John Paul II beatifying the Capuchin Monk Padre Pio Da Pietrelcina, who was buried in this southeastern town. As the pope pronounced the beatification of the monk, whose bore stigmata on his hands, feet and chest resembling the wounds of Christ, a cry of "Long Live Padre Pio!" went up from the crowd.

The town's bells pealed while a portrait of Padre Pio was hoisted into the sky by balloons. Beatification is an official step towards sainthood. The ceremony for the monk, who died in 1968 at the age of 68 after having a number of miracles attributed to him, fired the imaginations of thousands in this Roman Catholic country. Some 600 police and volunteers turned out to marshall the crowds around the grave of the monk.

The faithful swamped the streets and alleys of this town of just 21,000 inhabitants, spilling out into the surrounding fields. (AFP)