POPE-ECUADOR/GUAYAQUIL-MASS UPDATE Pope Francis calls for rekindling of family values in first mass of Latin American trip

Record ID: 148219

  • Title: POPE-ECUADOR/GUAYAQUIL-MASS UPDATE Pope Francis calls for rekindling of family values in first mass of Latin American trip
  • Date: 6th July 2015
  • Summary: GUAYAQUIL, ECUADOR (JULY 6, 2015) (REUTERS) CROWD OF FAITHFUL WAVING FLAGS AND CHANTING SEATED CROWD AWAITING THE PAPAL MASS
  • Embargoed: 21st July 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Ecuador
  • Country: Ecuador
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA9D0A5AX3KC90Q1VXALM9V722
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Some 800,000 people gathered to listen to Pope Francis give his first mass in Ecuador on Monday (July 6), the starting leg of his "homecoming" tour of South America.
    Throngs of faithful waved flags and chanted as they waited for the 78-year-old pope to arrive.
    In line with his simple style, Francis rode into the city in a small silver Fiat, but then switched to an open jeep when he reached the sprawling Mass site and rode through the crowd.
    On the first full day of a three-nation trip, the Argentine-born pontiff was in Ecuador's second city Guayaquil, a steamy port sometimes referred to as the world's "banana capital," given its bustling fruit trade.
    Pope Francis used Monday's mass to ask for support in his efforts to reach out to Catholics who feel shunned by the Church when the world's bishops gather at the Vatican in October.
    He also focused on the theme of the family which will be the subject of the month-long synod at the Vatican.
    The meeting is expected to discuss ways to reach out to Catholics who have divorced and remarried outside the Church. Under current rules, they are prohibited from receiving communion unless they abstain from sexual relations.
    The gathering is also expected to discuss how the Church should reach out to homosexual Catholics.
    He said the family was the "best social capital" and could not be replaced by other institutions.
    "Do what He tells you and appreciate that in this time that is ours, the new wine, the best one (wine), will help us recover the joy of family and the joy of living as part of a family. Let it be," he said.
    Conservative bishops oppose any changes regarding the divorced and remarried.
    At a preparatory meeting last year they botched conciliatory language on the pastoral care of gay couples.
    After the mass, Francis was due to go to a Jesuit-run school to visit an old friend he has not seen in three decades, the cigar-smoking Rev. Francisco Cortes.
    When he was a seminary director in Argentina, Francis, then Father Jorge Bergoglio, would send seminarians to the school to study theology with Cortes, now a diminutive 91-year-old Spaniard affectionately known as "Father Paquito."
    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.
    Francis was to hold talks with Correa later on Monday.
    After Ecuador, the pope heads to Bolivia and Paraguay on a tour encompassing three of the region's poorest and smallest countries. The pope visited Brazil for a youth festival in 2013 but that was to substitute for predecessor Benedict after his sudden resignation.
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