Pope Leo XIV celebrated his first Mass in Uruguay, gathering around 40,000 faithful in the city of Paysandu, as part of his 12-day tour of three countries in South America. The Vatican and local authorities in western Uruguay confirmed the massive turnout on Saturday morning. Of the total, 30,000 people from Uruguay, neighboring Argentina and Brazil had registered in advance for the event, while some 10,000 others braved the rain to attend the religious service. This marks an important moment for the Pope, who underwent surgery for lung cancer on October 13. He was greeted with great enthusiasm by cheering crowds as he traveled from the local airport to the large Paris London Park in Paysandu, a city on the Uruguay River, some 375 kilometers west of the capital, Montevideo.
Despite health challenges, Pope Leo XIV showed extraordinary determination. Soledad Sanchez, a believer who had traveled from afar to be in Paysandu, told the French news agency AFP that she and many others were not sure whether the Pope would be able to make it, but that he “pushed himself for us.” With tears in her eyes, Sanchez added: “He came here to give us a message of peace, because he knows our world needs it now.” The Saturday morning Mass was dedicated to Blessed Jacinto Vera, who was named the first bishop of Uruguay by Pope Leo XIII in 1878. A day earlier, the leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics had praised Bishop Vera, noting that he had walked through villages and helped the poor, and that those who met him “found something of the goodness of Christ” in him.
The 71-year-old pontiff, born in the United States and holding American, Peruvian and Vatican citizenship, is seeking to increase interest in the Catholic Church in Uruguay, the most secular country in South America. His aim is to offer a solution to help the nation and its citizens cope with the problems of the modern world. Pope Leo also stressed this need for social intervention on Saturday afternoon, when he visited a neighborhood of Montevideo affected by drug violence, where the Church has invested in social housing and rehabilitation projects for addicts. “We cannot simply look the other way when we know there are children in Uruguay who do not go to school for fear they will not return,” the Pope said. “And of course, no child should suffer violence to the point of losing their life.”
At his last event in the country, a prayer vigil at Montevideo’s Estadio Centenario that drew around 60,000 young believers, the pontiff urged young people “to dare to take the step of marriage and create a family of their own.” He also asked married couples “to open your homes to life – even when the world tells you that a child is a burden.” This call comes at a time when birth rates have fallen sharply across the region, from 5.8 children per woman in 1950 to 1.8 in 2024, well below the 2.1 children per woman needed to sustain a stable population, according to a recent study by the UN Population Fund.
On Sunday, Pope Leo will travel to Argentina, where he will meet President Javier Milei. Milei, a libertarian populist and close ally of former U.S. President Donald Trump, has previously sharply criticized the leader of the world’s largest Christian denomination for his calls to end wars and cruel immigration policies. The meeting is expected to be a key moment in the Pope’s tour, given the earlier tensions and the geopolitical importance of the region.
Source: Deutsche Welle