Pope John Paul II waves as he boards his plane to depart Toronto on Monday. Photo: Frank Gunn/CP

The Pope said goodbye to Toronto Monday on the tarmac of an airport crowded with well-wishers

But at least some of his 206,000 World Youth Day pilgrims have decided to delay their departures — 23 young Cubans are now declaring their desire to defect to Canada, the Cuban Catholic Bishops announced Monday at a conference.

But that news came after the Pope's plane left Toronto just after 11:30 a.m. local time.

Please see:
• Cuban refugees plead for Canada's help
• Store warehouse bogged down in WYD sewage
• Pope's comments fall short, victims of abuse say
• Rain prompts prayers — and maybe one answered
• Text of the Pope's homily
• Our World Youth Day backgrounder
  and our weekend photo gallery

His rolling podium passed through lines of Torontonians, clergy and private citizens alike, who had come to see him off.

It was again on his own strength that the ailing Pope navigated the steps to his white jet. His hunched-over profile could be seen through one of the jet's windows and some in the cheering crowded cried when they saw it.

The 82-year-old Pope arrived later Monday in Guatemala for the first of two stops in Latin America.

Before his departure, he performed one last rite Monday, officiating over a private mass for the retired clerics who acted as his host.

The Morrow Park ceremony was a much smaller affair than Sunday's World Youth Day mass, delivered to a congregation 800,000 strong on the muddy fields of Downsview Lands in north Toronto.

That event capped a week of World Youth Day celebrations and saw the Pope break his silence on the child abuse scandals plaguing the American Catholic church.

"The harm done by some priests and religious to the young and vulnerable fills us all with a deep sense of sadness and shame," the Pope said in the homily he delivered at the three-hour mass.

"But think of the vast majority of dedicated and generous priests and religious whose only wish is to serve and do good," he advised his pilgrims.

The number of those young acolytes, falls considerably short of WYD attendance in years past.

The first of the international celebration was held in 1987 in Buenos Aires, attracting one million people. The year 2000 event in Rome attracted double that number.

But Toronto organizers are calling their event a success given that the Pope was largely feared too ill to travel.

"From the smiles on the Pope's face Sunday, I got the impression that the whole event, the young people, all pleased him immensely," Paul Kilbertus, WYD communications director, told globeandmail.com Monday.

"The event is a success from what we saw through the week with the young people praying, especially at Sunday's mass."

WYD's balance sheet may not be as rosy, however.

"The best case scenario is that the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops will break even," said Mr. Kilbertus. "But the church isn't in this to make money." Those numbers along with official attendance data will be released as early as Friday.

But Toronto businesses — from chartered bus firms to fast food restaurants — are expected to fare much better. World Youth Day was a shot in the arm of the city's tourism trade, he said.