For those traveling at high altitudes, like Pope Francis, sickness can strike a person at mild to severe stages – acute mountain sickness (AMS), high-altitude cerebral edema (HACE), and high-altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE).
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They also urged companies ranging from Bank of America Corp.
Morales praised Francis as someone who is “helping in the liberation of our people“.
Pope Francis publicly rebuked Bolivian president Evo Morales during a state visit after he presented him with a crucifix in the shape of the Communist sickle and hammer. After his 1992 apology, John Paul II issued a sweeping but vague apology for the Catholic Church’s sins of the past during the church’s 2000 Jubilee.
Francis has impressed people with his stamina as he walked amid crowds, kissed people and took selfies.
In that speech, the pope quoted from his encyclical, saying the Amazon “requires greater protection because of its huge importance for the global ecosystem … it possesses an enormously complex biodiversity which is almost impossible to appreciate fully”.
“A despairing heart finds it easy to succumb to a way of thinking which is becoming ever more widespread in our world“, Francis said in his sermon in Santa Cruz de la Sierra before hundreds of thousands of faithful.
The scene in Santa Cruz was festive, with street-sellers hawking digital watches with the pope’s face on them and indigenous in feathered headdresses mingling with mestizos, or Bolivians of mixed indigenous-Spanish ancestry.
Mr Morales had pledged to safeguard the interests of Bolivia’s indigenous but he has alienated lowlands natives by promoting a highway through a nature reserve and authorising oil and natural gas exploration in wilderness areas.
Bolivia’s deputy minister for coordination with social movements says the Guarani would have been welcome had they actively sought participation.
During his nine-day trip, he will reach out to indigenous communities – many of which still associate Catholicism with colonialism – visit inmates in Bolivia’s infamous Palmasola prison and tour Paraguay’s Banado Norte shantytown.
“I have a prepared script, but I don’t want to read it”, said the 78-year-old pope to laughs from the crowd, before asking them to pray for him so that he would never forget where he came from. Its Justice and Peace council organized this meeting with Bolivia’s government, which chose the more than 1,500 delegates.
“Now the Bolivian people receive you with joy and hope”, said Morales, wearing a dark suit with an indigenous pattern embroidered around the lapels.
And then there are the truly poor, including almost a dozen collectives of trash-pickers, “cartoneros”, from Argentina, organizations especially dear to the pope.
The Vatican wasn’t expecting the unusual gift and it immediately raised eyebrows.
On the way from the airport to the government palace, Pope Francis stopped to bless a site memorializing the assassination of Jesuit Father Luis Espinal.
Lombardi said Espinal’s fellow priests said he had designed the crucifix as a symbol of dialogue and commitment to freedom for Bolivia during a turbulent time. So he dashed into a nearby Burger King and used the fast food joint’s bathroom.
At an airport welcome ceremony with Morales by his side, Francis recalled that the Catholic faith took “deep root” in Bolivia centuries ago “and has continued to shed its light upon society, contributing to the development of the nation and shaping its culture”.
He denounced what he called a “mentality in which everything has a price, everything can be bought, everything is negotiable”.
Under Francis, Latin America’s first pope, they have been somewhat rehabilitated.
Bolivians will have to wait a little longer for the arrival of Pope Francis.
Around the plaza, dominated by the giant bronze Christ the Redeemer statue, big-screen TVs were erected for people to watch the religious service.
Many people spent the night in the plaza to get a spot for mass and a good view of the pontiff.
Addressing the need for diplomacy to avoid conflict between neighboring countries, Francis departed from his script and made a reference to landlocked Bolivia’s battle to reclaim access to the Pacific Ocean.
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It is a message he is likely to repeat later this week in Bolivia, the next stop on his three-nation South American tour.
