LOURDES, France - A frail Pope John Paul II joined other ailing pilgrims Saturday for a weekend of prayer at a shrine to the Virgin Mary, where Roman Catholics seek hope, inner peace and miraculous cures.

Up to 300,000 people are expected in Lourdes, a small town nestled in the Pyrenees, for the pontiff's two-day visit to a mountainside where Mary is said to have appeared to St. Bernadette in 1858.

The pope, seated in a wheelchair, was greeted by French President Jacques Chirac and his wife Bernadette on the red-carpeted runway at the airport in Tarbes. The Chiracs kissed the pope's ring and escorted him into a VIP building.

Then, speaking haltingly and with difficulty, John Paul paid homage to France's heritage of "culture and faith" and talked of his weekend plans to visit Lourdes' famous grotto.

"With great emotion I wish to join the millions of pilgrims who come to Lourdes each year from every part of the world, in order to entrust to the Mother of the Lord the intentions which they bear in their hearts and to ask for her help and intercession," he said.

Chirac spoke of peace, solitary, and the fight against racism and hate, which he said was "particularly urgent in light of mounting fanaticism and intolerance." France has recently struggled to curb acts of anti-Semitic violence and vandalism at Jewish and Muslim cemeteries.

Chirac also called Lourdes - the second-most visited Christian city of pilgrimage after Rome - "a place of faith and hope."

After speaking, the pope greeted French officials in red-white-and-blue sashes before being ushered out of the room in a wheelchair draped in white cloth. Sun-drenched streets, decked with welcome signs, were lined with excited pilgrims waiting to catch a glimpse of the pontiff.

Lourdes' shrine - a grotto where the faithful pray, light candles and drink from a spring - is associated with healing powers for the sick. The Vatican says, however, that the 84-year-old pope is not seeking a cure for his Parkinson's disease and other health problems.