MONTEVIDEO: Pope Leo XIV on Saturday slammed the deaths of children in areas of wealthy Uruguay gripped by drug violence, as he visited the most crime-ridden neighborhood in the South American country.
Just three weeks after undergoing surgery for lung cancer, the 71-year-old pontiff is on a 12-day tour of the continent where he served nearly two decades as a missionary.
Leo walked amid high security through the streets of the Casavalle area of Montevideo, where the murder rate is four times the national average. Residents say they hear gunfire every night.
“There are children in Uruguay who do not go to school for fear of never returning home,” the pope said.
“In a country as rich in resources as this, children should never have to go to bed hungry… Much less should they have to suffer violence to the point of losing their lives,” he said.
Violence is on the rise in traditionally safe Uruguay, due to its growing role as a hub in Latin America’s cocaine trade.
Tit-for-tat attacks by gangs vying for control of drug routes have caused the murder rate to spiral.
Katherine Silva’s voice cracked with emotion as she told the pope about the violence and abuse she had suffered as a child.
After ending up homeless at 15, the young mother said she “went through very dark times” and “nearly died” before being saved by a Catholic family.
- ‘CHANGE LIVES’ –
Claudia, a 33-year-old nurse who did not wish to give her surname, described to AFP once seeing a motorcycle pull up in front of her house “and riddle someone with bullets.”
“You don’t know what to do when your children see a body lying there. It’s become very normalised,” she said.
As police helicopters flew overhead, locals waved and cheered to welcome the head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, who blessed 12 new low-income houses financed by the Church.
“Being here with you makes me feel at home, and brings back memories of the visits I made to various communities as a missionary,” Leo told the crowd.
Federico Castro, 29, said he hoped the pope’s visit would change the lives of people like him who “made bad decisions.”
“I’ve stopped walking those paths of evil and death,” he said, crediting his faith for turning his life around.
There are a disproportionate number of young men among murder victims, official figures show, with experts suggesting many youths are being lured into crime as a way to make money.
Some four in 10 children and adolescents live in poverty in Uruguay, according to UNICEF.
Paint shop owner Mario Tabarez said he doubted the pope’s visit would have a long-term effect.
“The addicts have disappeared this week, but once this is all over, they’ll be back on the streets,” he told AFP.
- BUILD BRIDGES –
Leo started the second day of his South American tour calling on Catholics in the secular country to be “bridge builders” for the faith.
Latin America is the world’s most Catholic continent but the number of people who define themselves as such has plummeted in the past 30 years, from 80 per cent to 55 per cent, a Latinobarometro poll showed.
In the northwestern city of Paysandu, Leo paid homage to the local tradition of sharing the herbal infusion called mate, sipped from a gourd with a metal straw.
Mate “teaches us to share and be together,” the pope told thousands of faithful, many of whom were clutching one of the hot drinks.
“Mate has even made its way to Rome,” Leo joked.
At the Catholic University of Uruguay, he returned to a key theme of his papacy: the importance of ensuring AI is put at the service of human dignity.
The pope warned of “dehumanisation” through the use of AI in education, and urged schools and university to place the “person before the algorithm.”
On Friday, in the first speech of his tour, Leo advocated for universal health care.
His own lung cancer diagnosis made him think of the “many men and women” who do not receive a timely diagnosis or treatment, he said.
US-born Leo’s tour had been in doubt after he was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor, but on the flight from Rome to Montevideo he cheerfully told journalists he was “in fairly good shape.”
His tour will take him to Argentina, home of the late Pope Francis, on Sunday and then to Peru, where he served as bishop and which claims the pope as one of its own.–AFP