Pope calls for Catholic unity in South America

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/07/pope-calls-for-catholic-unity-in-south-america

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Related: Pope Francis visits Ecuador for start of 'homecoming' tour – in pictures

Pope Francis has urged Latin Americans to channel the same urgency that brought them independence from Spain two centuries ago to spreading the faith, on a continent where Catholicism is losing souls to other religious movements.

The pontiff used his final mass in Ecuador, on Tuesday, to issue an appeal for the missionary church that he has championed. Francis chose to celebrate mass in Quito’s Bicentennial Park — an apt location given that Ecuador was where the first cries of independence against Spanish rule rose up in Latin America in 1809.

Francis told the gathering, estimated by the interior ministry at more than 1 million people, that in a world divided by wars, violence and individualism, Catholics should be “builders of unity,” bringing together hopes and ideals of their people.

“There was no shortage of conviction or strength in that cry for freedom which arose a little more than 200 years ago,” he said. “But history tells us that it only made headway once personal differences were set aside.”

He urged Latin Americans to channel that same purpose to spreading the faith. Latin America counts 40% of the world’s Catholics, but the church is losing out to Protestant evangelical churches, which have focused their ministry on the continent’s poorest communities, with real-life guidance on employment and education.

Related: Proportion of Catholics in Latin America has dropped 25% since 1970

While the drop-off in Spanish-speaking South America hasn’t been as sharp as it has been in Brazil, it is notable: Some 95% of Ecuador’s population was Catholic in 1970; today the figure is down to 79%, according to the Pew Research Centre.

In a bid to counter the trend and return the Catholic church to its evangelising origins, Francis has called for the church today to return to being a missionary church that looks out particularly for society’s poorest and most marginal. It’s a message he crafted for the entire Latin American church when he played a leading role in a 2007 conference of bishops in Aparecida, Brazil.

“Evangelisation doesn’t consist in proselytising, but in attracting by our witness to those who are far off, in humbly drawing near to those who feel distant from God and the church, those who are fearful or indifferent.” Francis told the crowd. “Proselytism is a caricature of evangelisation.”

The mass featured readings in Quichua, the native language mostly spoken in Ecuador, and Ecuadorean vestments for the pope. It kicked off a final full day in Ecuador that began with meetings with bishops and included a visit to Quito’s Catholic University for a meeting with students and professors that likely would show the unpredictable pope at his best: Francis often goes off-script when he engages with young people, all the more so in his native tongue.

Francis then planned to go to a Quito church for an encounter with business leaders, people involved in the arts and indigenous groups. The 78-year-old pontiff, who has only one full lung following an infection he suffered as a young man, appears to be holding up well at the start of his visit despite the 2,800-metre (9,200 ft) altitude of Quito, and a day spent in the scorching sun of coastal Guayaquil on Monday.

“It’s always surprising what the pope can do at his age,” said the Vatican spokesman, the Rev Federico Lombardi. He noted that several people in the Vatican entourage awoke Monday with headaches due to altitude sickness, but not the pope. “He has said it’s God’s way of helping him do his ministry, his service,” Lombardi said.