(AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa). Pope Francis blesses the faithful gathered at independence square in Quito, Ecuador, Monday, July 6, 2015.
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His welcoming included a song sung in the indigenous Quechua language called “Taita” – which means papa in Quechua.
Both the church and the plaza outside are jammed with thousands of onlookers who showered the pontiff with cheers and applause. In that document, released in June, the Pope urged immediate action to combat climate change.
Francis has called for environmentally responsible development, one that is aimed at helping the poor without sacrificing the planet.
“One thing is clear, we can not continue turning our back on reality, on our brothers, on Mother Earth”, he said during a meeting with teachers and students in northern Quito.
“How many of our adolescents and young people sense that [love and happiness] are no longer found in their homes?” he said. Finally, the Pope came out, gave the crowd a quick blessing and then firmly told them to go home and let the neighbors get some rest.
Francis was set to leave for Bolivia on Wednesday, while he was to visit Paraguay from Friday.
“It seems we’re not being permitted a direct voice”, he said late Monday. Along Francis motorcade route, the crowds alternated chants of adulation for the pontiff with jeers of Correa out! when the presidents entourage followed.Correa also has angered environmentalists and the nations main indigenous group, CONAIE, by moving forward with oil drilling and mining projects in pristine Amazon forests.
The pope’s visit to Guayaquil took on extra significance for Ecuador, and its leftist President Rafael Correa, given it has been the epicenter of anti-government protests for weeks.
The head of Ecuador’s bishops says people in the Andean country are listening with great interest to the words of Pope Francis.
“We need to ask ourselves about the kind of culture we want not only for ourselves, but for our children and our grandchildren”, Pope Francis said, before citing his recent encyclical on the environment. All I ask, please, is that you pray for me.The crowd in Los Samanes park was festive, with young and old overjoyed at seeing the first pope in their lives.Ill ask the pope to intercede so that God gives me my health, said 90-year-old Guillermina Aveiga Davila, who arrived at dawn from the coastal city of Chone, some 300 kilometers (about 185 miles) away. “Our people are hungry for God”.
Pope John Paul II arrived at the same Bicentenario Park when it was an airport 30 years ago.
“And this encounter leads us, in turn, to encounter others, to become involved with the world and to develop a passion for evangelization”, he said.
A large portion of the Roman Catholic Church’s 1.2 billion followers are in Latin America, although those numbers have slightly declined due to the rising popularity of other faiths.
Proselytizing, he said, is but a “caricature” of evangelization. He’ll travel to three South American nations, Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay, which are beset by problems that concern him deeply, income inequality and environmental degradation.
While the drop-off in Spanish-speaking South America hasn’t been as sharp as it has been in Brazil, it is notable: Some 95 percent of Ecuador’s population was Catholic in 1970, and now the figure is down to 79 percent, according to the Pew Research Center.
(Vatican Radio) Approximately one-and-a-half million people filled Quito’s Bicentennial Park for an open air Mass with Pope Francis, on the second day of his Apostolic Voyage to South America.
The leader of the Catholic church said that in a world divided by wars, violence and individualism, Catholics should be “builders of unity”, bringing together the hopes and ideals of their people.
He said: “There was no shortage of conviction or strength in that cry for freedom which arose a little more than 200 years ago”.
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In his homily at Mass on Monday in Guayaquil, Ecuador, the Pope made reference to the upcoming meeting, saying that through it, the Church would “deepen her spiritual discernment and consider concrete solutions and help to the many hard and significant challenges facing families today”.
