Madrid, Spain ? Showing unusual energy, Pope John Paul II proclaimed five new saints Sunday before a crowd of 1 million people as he urged Spaniards to remain faithful to the Roman Catholic Church.

Facing the vast crowd spread out in the form of a cross, John Paul spoke in a strong and clear voice in the major event of his weekend visit to Spain.

“Don’t break with your Christian roots,” the frail 82-year-old pope said during a three-hour Mass, taking up a theme he has sounded across an increasingly secular Europe.

The Spanish royal family and most members of the government attended the service, with the vast congregation filling four boulevards intersecting at Madrid’s central Plaza de Colon, where a white altar was erected.

The pope sat in a special hydraulic chair on wheels that allows him to celebrate Mass without getting up. He suffers from the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.

Papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said Sunday that “if everything goes as expected,” John Paul will visit Mongolia in August and the Vatican is hoping to arrange a historic stopover in Russia en route. It would be the first papal visit to Russia ever.

The Russian Orthodox Church has been opposed to such a stop, accusing the Roman Catholic Church of seeking converts in traditionally Orthodox lands.

Despite heavy security a child is handed to Pope John Paul II and he kissed it as he was wheeled to a waiting plane in a special trolley at Madrid's Barajas airport at the end of his two-day visit to Madrid. Watching are King Juan Carlos, second right, and Queen Sofia, right. Pope John Paul II proclaimed five new saints Sunday before a crowd of 1 million people as he urged Spaniards to remain faithful to the Roman Catholic Church. The pope sat in a special hydraulic chair on wheels that allows him to celebrate Mass without getting up.

The pope and his entourage returned to Rome late Sunday. During a brief departure ceremony attended by dignitaries and several hundred Spanish citizens, security guards held babies out for the pope to kiss. Queen Sofia appeared to be crying as she kneeled down to kiss the pontiff’s hand and say goodbye.

The earlier Madrid ceremony canonized two priests and three nuns, all 20th-century figures commemorated for their work with the poor. Giant pictures of the five hung from an office building overlooking the plaza.

One of the priests, Pedro Poveda, was assassinated in 1936 during the opening days of the Spanish Civil War.

The church claims 4,184 clergy were killed during the war by the government, or Republican, side, which accused the church of backing fascist Gen. Francisco Franco.

The other four new saints are Angela de la Cruz, who founded the Sisters of the Company of the Cross; Genoveva Torres, who founded the Sisters of the Sacred Heart and of the Holy Angels; Maravillas de Jesus, who founded convents for the Order of Barefoot Carmelites; and Jose Maria Rubio, a Jesuit priest.

The pope called them “marvelous examples” for Spanish Catholics. The Vatican says more than 90 percent of Spaniards are Catholic, although surveys show church attendance has declined in recent decades.