POPE-LATAM/PARAGUAY-EMOTION Pope emotional at Paraguay shrine

Record ID: 147544

  • Title: POPE-LATAM/PARAGUAY-EMOTION Pope emotional at Paraguay shrine
  • Date: 11th July 2015
  • Summary: CAACUPE, PARAGUAY (JULY 11, 2015) (AGENCY POOL) PILGRIMS OUTSIDE SHRINE PARAGUAYAN FLAG WITH SNIPERS UNDERNEATH PILGRIMS WAITING FOR POPE TO ARRIVE AT MASS NUNS WAITING FOR POPE
  • Embargoed: 26th July 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Paraguay
  • Country: Paraguay
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA98H7PO51IUGJ6ZZJ17FYOIHZQ
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Pope Francis arrived slightly late for mass at a shrine in Caacupe, Paraguay on Saturday (July 11) after he was overcome by emotion while praying in front of a statue of the Madonna.
    Caacupe is famous for a shrine housing a statue of the Madonna said to have been carved by a Guarani convert to Christianity in the 16th century, when missionaries set up in the area.
    According to tradition, the Guarani man, a carpenter, hid in a tree trunk to escape warriors from the rival Mbayaea tribe, who were killing converts, and later carved the statue in gratitude for surviving. Devotees believe the statue to be miraculous because it survived a flood in the 17th century.
    As crowds waited for the pope to arrive to begin mass, a bishop came to the microphone and told hundreds of thousands of pilgrims that the pope was slightly delayed.
    "He has told me to tell you that he is about to arrive, therefore we will continue," the bishop said.
    Shortly afterwards the pope arrived and conducted the mass in a normal fashion.
    Thousands of Argentines crossed the border to see Pope Francis, nearing the end of a "homecoming" tour of South America in which he has urged the downtrodden to change the world economic order, warned of irreversible harm to the planet and walked among prisoners.
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