Pope Leo XIV in Uruguay!
Montevideo, Nov 7 (EFE). –
Pope Leo XIV said Saturday during his visit to the Casavalle neighborhood, one of the most vulnerable areas of Montevideo, Uruguay, that no child in a country “rich in resources” “should go to bed without eating, nor should they be denied a decent education and a dignified future because of the insecurity that reigns in the streets.”
After celebrating Mass in Paysandú, Leo XIV went to Casavelle, which has high rates of poverty, violence, and drug trafficking, to bless 12 houses built through the parish project “Familias de Guadalupe,” which he helped fund with money from the US association The Papal Foundation.
Accompanied by the Archbishop of Montevideo, Cardinal Daniel Sturla, the pope walked through the entrance to one of the areas of this neighborhood, made up of tin shacks and dirt roads, until he reached the site where the new homes are being built, where he met some of the families who have been assigned the homes and blessed them.
“May these homes be much more than just a roof over your heads: may they be a true home where you can grow in dignity, peace, and hope,” he said later in his address at the parish.
“It is a great joy for me to visit this parish, walk the streets of this neighborhood, and see the work that has been accomplished with such effort. Seeing them, I feel at home, recalling my visits to various communities as a missionary,” The pope told the nearly 12,000 residents who gathered at the Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe parish gates.
In the face of violence and poverty, the pope affirmed that we must continue to commit ourselves “to the charitable closeness of the Good Samaritan who, upon seeing another’s misfortune, was not indifferent but took responsibility for his brother’s life.”
And he affirmed: “We cannot turn a blind eye when we know that there are children in Uruguay who do not go to school for fear of not returning. We cannot silence our conscience when we see that a mother does not have the means to feed her children. We cannot ignore that many people around us are suffering, who are alone and vulnerable,” he said.
The pontiff urged “the Church, civil society, and the State to work together” for the common good.
“It is up to us to decide whether to build a new city, in which no one is excluded, or to continue comfortably immersed, each in our own affairs,” he added.
“Let us therefore join our efforts and respond generously to the call to build together a homeland of brothers and sisters,” said the pope, inviting this secular state to collaborate with Catholic institutions.
He concluded by saying, “May God bless you, and may our Mother of Guadalupe, for whom I have a special affection and veneration, since I received my episcopal ordination on her feast day, shelter you with her heavenly mantle.” EFEccg/mcd
