I rather assume that the Dalai Lama wasn't there because he decided against it, for whatever reason, as Joe said. I noticed on the TV there was a Buddhist monk in a prominent position, sitting in the front row among the dignitaries. His robes looked Tibetan to me, and I rather assumed he was there as the Dalai Lama's representative. After all the Dalai Lama and JP appear to have been mates. (And they both wore Doc Marten boots...)
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The main reason poor people in the Third World have big families is because of infant mortality, and because big families have always been better at coping with the crises of life in that kind of situation.

I don't think there's any evidence that where the people in those parts of the world aren't Catholics they have significantly fewer children. The idea that it's a matter of the Pope snapping his fingers and all Catholics fall into line, so if he snapped his fingers in the right way all the problems would be solved - that's basically rubbish, and if you think about it for a minute it's self-evident rubbish.