POPE-LATAM/PARAGUAY-DEPARTURE Pope bids farewell to Paraguay ending South America, three country, trip

Record ID: 147262

  • Title: POPE-LATAM/PARAGUAY-DEPARTURE Pope bids farewell to Paraguay ending South America, three country, trip
  • Date: 13th July 2015
  • Summary: ASUNCION, PARAGUAY (JULY 12, 2015) (REUTERS) ****WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** EXTERIOR OF ASUNCION INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT POPE FRANCIS ARRIVING AT AIRPORT BISHOPS IN ATTENDANCE LITTLE BOYS DRESSED IN VATICAN GUARD OUTFITS VARIOUS OF POPE SITTING WITH PARAGUAY'S PRESIDENT HORACIO CARTES
  • Embargoed: 28th July 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Paraguay
  • Country: Paraguay
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA83JT3YRPHHNMO9675V0F24SBM
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Pope Francis left for Rome on Sunday (July 12) at the end of a trip to South America during which he censured capitalism, championed the rights of the poor, warned of irreversible damage to the planet and urged youths to "make a mess".
    In passionate speeches, the Argentine pontiff urged the destitute to change the world economic order and branded the unfettered pursuit of money as the "dung of the devil". He also sought forgiveness for the sins committed by the Catholic Church against native Americans during the colonial era.
    Earlier on Sunday the pope heard harrowing tales of life in a flood-prone shantytown and appealed to the slum dwellers, many forced from their farms and now squatting on city land, to stay united in their struggle for better living and working conditions.
    The Argentine pontiff made defending the poor a major theme of his "homecoming" trip, which also took him to Ecuador and Bolivia, ranked among Latin America's poorest countries.
    Francis has used two major speeches on his trip to excoriate unbridled capitalism and champion the rights of the poor.
    In Bolivia on Thursday, he urged the downtrodden to change the world economic order and called for the poor to have the "sacred rights" of labor, lodging and land.
    On Saturday he urged politicians and business leaders "not to yield to an economic model which is idolatrous, which needs to sacrifice human lives on the altar of money and profit". Food and shelter were essential to human dignity, he said.
    In a foretaste of his September trip to the United States, Francis said in Ecuador, a biodiversity hot spot, that protecting the environment was no longer a choice but a duty if the world wanted to save the planet from ruin.
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