Pope Benedict XVI led about 200,000 followers in an open-air mass in Paris on Saturday to celebrate his first official visit to France.
The leader of the world's one billion Roman Catholics arrived on board the "popemobile" at the historic Invalides complex south of the River Seine.
At least 160,000 people, many of them families with young children, had flocked into the square to watch the Pope's image beamed on to six giant screens, organisers say, with many thousands more lined up along the pope's route, cheering and waving flags.
In his homily, the Pope continued a theme dear to him: the need to inject lasting spiritual and religious values into a modern society that often seemed enamoured of things material and fleeting.
"Has not our modern world created its own idols?" he said, recalling ancient pagans who worshipped gold and silver statues.
"Has it not imitated, perhaps inadvertently, the pagans of antiquity, by diverting man from his true end, from the joy of living eternally with God," he said.
"Have not money, the thirst for possessions, for power and even for knowledge, diverted man from his true destiny?" he said, wearing gold, white and red vestments and speaking fluent French.
Christianity's stuggle
The Pontiff's four-day visit to France comes as the country faces a freefall in the number of churchgoers despite its deep Christian heritage.
But he received a triumphant welcome, with 40,000 people taking part in the night-time procession from Notre Dame cathedral to the Invalides, many carrying sleeping bags and food to keep them going until the mass.
"There is a real fervour," said Valerie Louisy, 52, one of 5,000 Christian volunteers at the Invalides.
"It's good to see Christians come out of their bubble a bit, it makes us realise how many of us there are."
On Friday the Pope threw his weight behind a call by President Nicolas Sarkozy to rethink the strict separation of religion and state, and recognise religion's role in building an "ethical" society.
Mr Sarkozy, a twice-divorced lapsed Catholic, broke a French taboo during a trip to the Vatican last year by calling for a "positive secularism" that would allow space for religion in public life.
While Catholicism remains by far France's number one religion, the country is also home to Europe's biggest Muslim and Jewish communities and staunchly upholds a 1905 law enshrining the separation of Church and State.
Following a reception hosted by Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni, the Pope met with leaders of France's 600,000-strong Jewish and five-million strong Muslim communities.
