After wrapping up the Ecuador leg of his South American pilgrimage Wednesday, Pope Francis flew to Bolivia, where church-state tensions over everything from the environment to the role of the church in society are high on the agenda.
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In his address to the pope, Morales, who had frequently clashed with Church officials in Bolivia before relations improved when Francis was elected in 2013, welcomed the pope as a homecoming hero.
During the welcome ceremony at the airport, the Pope appeared robust, delivering an energetic speech urging Bolivians, who are the poorest South Americans, to continue to build an inclusive society that does not leave out the poor and disadvantaged. While mining and oil extraction have brought Ecuador unparalleled revenues, the accompanying deforestation and pollution have degraded rain forests and disrupted the lives of indigenous peoples.
Francis is a fellow Jesuit and he stopped to pray at the site where Espinal’s body was dumped.
Taking up the global warming issue in Quito on Tuesday, Francis pressed the arguments made in his headline-grabbing encyclical earlier this month that the planet must not be exploited by the wealthy few for short-term profit at the expense of the poor.
Pope Francis had a taste of the coca plant leaves – the main ingredient of cocaine – to relieve him of altitude sickness.
Although the Argentine-born pope lost a lung during his youth, he will arrive in the thin-air of Bolivia s El Alto airport at more than 4,000 meters (13,100 feet) above sea level.
“It is so easy for us to become accustomed to the atmosphere of inequality all around us, with the result that we take it for granted”, he said. The government has been beset by a separate set of protests in recent weeks over Correa’s socialist policies, which have angered business leaders as well as the upper and middle classes, who want him to step down.
Before boarding the Boliviana de Aviacion plane, the pope hugged and blessed dozens of children who were dressed in traditional Andean garb.
It kicked off a final full day in Ecuador that began with meetings with bishops and included a visit to Quito’s Catholic University for a meeting with students and professors that likely would show the unpredictable pope at his best: Francis often goes off-script when he engages with young people, all the more so in his native tongue.
The last visit by a pope to Bolivia was a six-day tour by John Paul II in 1988.
With a vast crowd and a temporary altar, Pope Francis needed someplace to change before saying Mass. The closest place at hand was a Burger King.
“Do not fall into a spiritual Alzheimer’s, do not forget!”
Pope Francis speaks as he meets members of the civil society at the San Francisco Church in Quito, Ecuador, July 7, 2015.
The pope is skipping Argentina on this visit, in part because the Vatican tries to avoid countries where a presidential election is imminent.
Francis has impressed people with his stamina as he walked amid crowds, kissed people and took selfies.
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It remains, however, one of the poorest countries in the Americas. But Morales, who once said “I’m only Catholic to go to weddings”, surely ought to have recognized the audacity and tackiness of the gift’s appearance.
