VIDEOS/PHOTOS: Pope's Homecoming In South America

Pope Francis flew into Ecuador on Sunday to start a “homecoming” tour of South America, where he will champion the rights of the poor and the planet. The Pope’s visit to Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay, is his first abroad since his landmark encyclical calling for urgent action on climate change.

Reports say he chose to visit the three countries specifically because they are among the poorest and most marginal nations of a region that claims 40 percent of the world’s Catholics.




Noticeable is the fact that the Pope skipped his homeland of Argentina, where he ministered to the poorest slum-dwellers while archbishop.

Information gathered suggests that the act was done deliberately to avoid papal entanglement in this year’s presidential election.

Though Francis visited Portuguese-speaking Brazil in 2013, this is his first trip home to Spanish-speaking South America since being elected pope.

On his emergence from the plane, a breeze whipped off his white zucchetto cap and swirled his robes, but the amiable 78-year-old took it in his stride, walking to an embrace from President Rafael Correa.

Francis signaled some of the key themes for the visit in a speech, they included: the need to care for society’s most marginal, guarantee socially responsible economic development and defend the Earth against profit-at-all-cost development that he says harms the poor the most.



At the airport, Francis pledged that the Catholic Church was ready to help meet the challenges of the day by encouraging a respect for peoples’ differences, “fostering dialogue and full participation so that the growth in progress and development already registered will ensure a better future for everyone, with particular concern for the most vulnerable of our brothers and sisters.”

On his own part, President Correa echoed many of Francis’ own themes about the “perverse” global economic system that keeps the poor on the margins while the rich get richer, exploiting the Earth’s natural resources in the process.

Correa Said “Holy Father, the global order isn’t only unjust, it’s immoral.”


Rev. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman said that Francis wasn’t worried about the protests against Correa.
He estimated 500,000 people lined the route that took Francis to the Vatican ambassador’s residence.

Many in the crowd said they hoped the pope would have a calming effect on the country’s tense political situation.



People lined the streets in their tens of thousands as Francis’ motorcade drove into Quito, some pushing through a police line. Well-wishers threw gifts at the pope-mobile, including two live white doves.

According to BBC, Quito, Ecuador’s highland mixing colonial cobbled streets with modern high-rises, was plastered with posters and billboards welcoming Francis.



Statistics speculates that a million extra people are expected in Quito and the coastal city of Guayaquil for masses.

It  must be recalled that just recently, the Pope passed an encyclical calling for a change of culture as regards humanity’s interaction with nature, saying that a revolution was needed to combat climate change. The Pope said humanity’s “reckless” behavior has pushed the planet to a perilous “breaking point.”

In another related issue, the Pope said that those manufacturing guns cannot be called Christians.