As many as one million people from the Catholic faith from across Latin America have joined Pope Francis in a huge open-air mass in Ecuador.
During his speech to the large crowd in the Samanes Park in the southwestern port city of Guayaquil on Monday, the Pope pleaded to the people to fulfill the “social debt” toward the institution of family, which he called the backbone of society.
“Family embodies a great social wealth that other institutions cannot substitute. It must be helped and strengthened,” said the pope.
The hot weather in the city forced firefighters to spray the crowd with water to keep them cool while many shielded themselves from the sun with umbrellas. Many had camped out all night ahead of the event.
Pope Francis’s visit to Ecuador comes as part of a tour of Latin America. He is set to visit other countries in the region, including Bolivia and Paraguay. However, while Pope Francis is the first leader of the Roman Catholic Church to come from South America, he will not be visiting his home country of Argentina in the current tour.
This is the first such visit by a leader of the Catholic Church to the region in three decades.
HDS/GHN/HJL