Pope Francis receives warm welcome in first visit to Latin America
Pope Francis returned to Spanish-speaking South America for the first time as pontiff Sunday, stressing the importance of protecting the needy and the environment from exploitation. After Ecuador he will visit Bolivia and Paraguay, South America's two poorest countries.
QUITO, Ecuador (AP) – Pope Francis urged Latin Americans to channel the same urgency that brought them independence from Spain two centuries ago to spread the faith on a continent where Catholicism is losing souls to other religious movements, using his final Mass in Ecuador to issue an appeal for the missionary church that he has championed.
Francis chose to celebrate the Mass in Quito's Bicentennial Park — an apt location given that Ecuador was where the first cries of independence against Spanish rule rose up in Latin America in 1809.
Francis told an estimated half-million people gathered for the Mass that in a world divided by wars, violence and individualism, Catholics should be "builders of unity," bringing together hopes and ideals of their people.
"There was no shortage of conviction or strength in that cry for freedom which arose a little more than 200 years ago," he said. "But history tells us that it only made headway once personal differences were set aside."
He urged Latin Americans to channel that same purpose to spreading the faith. Latin America counts 40 percent of the world's Catholics, but the church is losing out to Protestant evangelical churches that have focused their missionary work on the continent's poorest communities with real-life guidance on employment and education.
"Evangelization doesn't consist in proselytizing, but in attracting by our witness to those who are far off," Francis said. "Proselytism is a caricature of evangelization."
The Mass featured readings in Quichua, the native language mostly spoken in Ecuador, and Ecuadorean vestments for the pope.
The Mass kicked off the pope's whirlwind final full day in Ecuador, including meetings with bishops, indigenous groups and students and capped by a visit to a famed Jesuit church. On Wednesday, history's first Latin American pope heads to Bolivia and will end his weeklong, three-nation South American tour in Paraguay.
Francis arrived at Quito's Bicentennial Park to cheers from the hundreds of thousands of people who camped out overnight to score a good spot. They were rewarded with a pre-dawn deluge that sent some 20 people to paramedics with hypothermia, city operations director Cristian Rivera said. But the sun broke out as Francis arrived on his popemobile to do a tour through the grounds, with fans tossing confetti on him as he zoomed by.
"The joy at seeing the pope gives us the warmth we need," said Abel Gualoto, a 59-year-old seafood vendor as he rubbed his cold hands together to try to stay warm.
After the Mass, Francis in the afternoon was to head to Quito's Catholic University for a meeting with students and professors that likely would show the unpredictable pope at his best: Francis often goes off-script when he engages with young people, all the more so in his native tongue. Francis then planned to go to a Quito church for an encounter with business leaders, people involved in the arts and indigenous groups.
His busy day was scheduled to end with a visit to the Church of the Society of Jesus, known locally as Iglesia de la Compania. The Jesuit church, a gem of Spanish Baroque, is one of the oldest and most well-known in Ecuador. It houses a painting of the Virgin Mary that was said to shed tears in 1906.
The 78-year-old pontiff, who has only one full lung following an infection he suffered as a young man, appears to be holding up well at the start of his eight-day, three-nation South American tour despite the 2,800-meter (nearly 9,200-feet) altitude of Quito and a day spent in the scorching sun of coastal Guayaquil. He had so much energy he slipped out again for a second night Monday to greet well-wishers who gathered outside the Vatican ambassador's residence where he stayed.
"It's always surprising what the pope can do at his age," said the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi. He noted that several people in the Vatican entourage awoke Monday with headaches due to altitude sickness, but not the pope.
"He has said it's God's way of helping him do his ministry, his service," Lombardi said.
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