Pope Leo celebrates his first mass in South America

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) — Pope Leo XIV He urged Uruguayans on Saturday to build bridges of brotherhood and faith, as he delivered an ode to the region’s beloved mate tea and raised the profile of the Catholic Church in its most secular country.

After arriving Friday, Leo spent his first full day in Uruguay, highlighting the Church’s historic roots in the country and the work it does today. He visited a Catholic university and a neighborhood of Montevideo ravaged by violence, where religious groups have built houses, provided job opportunities and conducted drug rehabilitation programs.

The goal, in the first leg of his tour of three South American countries, is to propose the Catholic faith as a response to today’s challenges and the Church as a willing helper in a country where even Catholic holidays have secular names and where God cannot be mentioned in oaths of office.

Leo first went to Paysandú, in western Uruguay, on the border with Argentina, for his first mass in South America. The Vatican said 40,000 people – many from Uruguay but also neighboring Argentina and Brazil – came out, despite morning rain and gray, windy skies.

The crowd erupted into the stadium chanting “Olé, olé, olé, olé, pope, pope!” » when Leo’s plane landed in Paysandú, about 375 kilometers from the capital, Montevideo. They again applauded, honked horns and waved yellow handkerchiefs as he arrived in his open popemobile at the mass site in a park.

Speaking to the crowd in Spanish, Leo recalled that the Catholic faith has been “part of the life of the Uruguayan people since its beginnings, and that it must be transmitted to future generations with creative courage!” »

Due to its accessible location on the Uruguay River, the city was chosen to host Leo’s first mass at the start of his South American tour in three countries it was a doubt after he underwent lung cancer surgery on October 13.

“He is the representative of Christ but he is human. And we weren’t sure he could do it, but he pushed for us,” said Soledad Sánchez, 73, who had driven to Paysandú from northern Uruguay, her eyes filling with tears. “He came here to give us a message of peace because he knows our world needs it right now.”

A visit to try to propose the Catholic faith

Leo, who arrived in Uruguay On Friday, he asked the faithful to build bridges of brotherhood, recalling the nearby bridge over the Uruguay River that connects Uruguay to Argentina and over which many pilgrims crossed to attend mass.

He also highlighted the ritual of drinking mate, the bitter herbal tea that Uruguayans and their neighbors carry everywhere, as a poignant symbol of unity and encounter that he suggested could be applied to the propagation of faith.

“It teaches us to share and be together, strengthening the bonds that unite us as brothers and sisters,” he said. “It is a sign of welcome, integration and shared values.”

Mate, a national symbol cherished in Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay, is above all a ritual of sharing. The leaves are steeped in a hollowed-out gourd and the drink is sipped through a metal straw called a bombilla, and the gourd is passed from hand to hand among friends, family and sometimes strangers, filled for hours.

Everyone drinks from the same straw, and Uruguayans drink more mate per person than anywhere else, or about 9 kilograms (about 20 pounds) of the dried leaves per year, according to industry estimates.

“We need to think about those symbols that we share, that give us identity and a sense of belonging, that tell us about our origins and point us toward the future,” Leo said.

The message has arrived.

“I’m not religious. I would never go to mass without the pope, but he surprised me. He made it attractive, in the way he talked about the things we all have in common, like my friend,” said Jorge Monzón, 64, from Paysandú. “Personally, I felt a sense of communion.”

An example of how the Church is helping Uruguay

Leo emphasized the message of the Church’s commitment to helping Uruguayans later Saturday when he visited Casavalle, a Montevideo district, small neighborhood is plagued by drug trafficking and gang violence. In Borro, the Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish builds houses and supports addicts in their recovery, thanks in part to donations from the Papal Foundation, the American group of wealthy Catholics who fund special pontifical projects.

In his intervention in Borro, Leo praised the work carried out by ecclesial groups and said that Christians must engage in the charity and closeness manifested by the biblical figure of the Good Samaritan, “who did not remain indifferent in the face of misfortune, but took responsibility for the life of his brother.”

“We cannot turn a blind eye to the fact that there are children in Uruguay who do not go to school for fear of never returning home,” he said. “We cannot silence our conscience when we see a mother who cannot afford to feed her children. We cannot ignore the many people around us who are suffering, alone and vulnerable.”

Uruguay has universal access to primary school and enrolls almost all of its children, but only about half of Uruguayans complete secondary school, one of the lowest rates in Latin America, according to the National Institute for Educational Evaluation. The graduation rate is even worse for children from the poorest households, where only one in four graduate, compared to nearly nine in 10 from the richest families.

Jonathan Tropiano, 28, is one of many area residents whose lives have been transformed by the Church.

He dreamed of becoming a rapper but was arrested after falling into crime and violence. Once released from prison, at the age of 20, Tropiano became increasingly close to the local church.

“My life was horrible, with so much suffering. But then I found God and that’s when I started to be a better person,” he said.

Argentinians flock to see Leo across the border

Saturday was Leo’s only full day in Uruguay before heading to Argentina on Sunday afternoon for the second leg of his trip, which was scheduled to end next week in his second native Peru.

Many Argentines, however, took advantage of the Paysandú Mass to see it because it was located right across a bridge from the eastern Argentine city of Colón and was closer than any of its Argentine stops in Buenos Aires, Luján and Córdoba.

“Argentina is a much more religious country than Uruguay, and there is this desire to be here to witness something historic,” said Luciana Lobato, 20, an Argentine tourist agent who organized buses for 180 pilgrims from across the border.

___

Winfield and Batschke reported from Montevideo, Uruguay. Ramiro Barreiro in Montevideo contributed.

___

Associated Press religion coverage receives AP support collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.