Pope Leo XIV urged Uruguayans on Saturday to build bridges of fraternity and faith at a Mass in Paysandú attended by 40,000 people, opening his South American tour.
The Vatican said the crowd included 30,000 people who had registered and 10,000 who came despite the rain, according to DW. No independent count of the attendance has been given.
According to PBS NewsHour, Leo praised mate as a symbol of unity and encounter. The same report says he visited Casavalle, a Montevideo area beset by drug trafficking and gang violence, where he said children in Uruguay do not go to school for fear of never returning home. Euronews described the Casavalle visit in the future tense, so that account is not confirmed by a second outlet in the sources.
PBS NewsHour also reports that church groups in Borro, working through the Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish, build homes and support addicts in recovery. Donations include money from The Papal Foundation.
DW reports that Leo held a prayer vigil at Montevideo’s Centenario Stadium that drew about 60,000 young faithful, and that he urged young people to start families. Euronews described the vigil as drawing thousands. No official count is cited.
PBS NewsHour reports that Leo underwent lung cancer surgery on October 13. The surgery had put his South American tour in doubt before the trip went ahead.
Uruguay is South America’s most secular country, where Catholic holidays have secular names and God cannot be mentioned in oaths of office. Uruguay has universal access to primary school, but only about half of Uruguayans finish high school, according to the National Institute for Educational Evaluation.
On Sunday, Euronews reports, the pope is expected to celebrate Mass at the National Shrine of the Virgen de los Treinta y Tres in Florida, about 90 kilometres from Montevideo. That report was written as a plan, not as a completed event. Leo is then due in Argentina to meet President Javier Milei, according to DW, and the tour ends next week in Peru.
No response from Uruguayan government officials is included in the available sources. Most details come from a single outlet, and the PBS NewsHour text was truncated, so its account rests on headlines and short excerpts.
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This article was written with AI assistance from the published reporting listed above. It is part of the World Brief daily news podcast.