Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Pope’s ‘Homecoming’ Tour Moves from Ecuador to Bolivia


Reuters, 08/07 14:15 CET

By Girish Gupta and Philip Pullella

QUITO (Reuters) – Pope Francis flies to Bolivia on Wednesday after drawing about 1.5 million people to Masses in Ecuador on the first leg of a “homecoming” tour, where he urged the world to take better care of the environment and the poor.

The Argentine-born pontiff was spending his last few hours at a home for the elderly in Ecuador’s highland capital Quito and a shrine just outside the city where he was to meet priests, nuns and seminarians.

He was then due to fly to high-altitude La Paz, in Bolivia, on Wednesday afternoon. Oxygen tanks are kept at the airport for arriving passengers who may struggle with the thin air.

That will focus attention on the 78-year-old pope’s health as he had part of one lung removed when he was younger after an infection that almost took his life.

Outside La Paz, Francis will stop at the spot where the body of Jesuit Father Luis Espinal Camps was found in 1980. The priest, who was a strong supporter of the rights of miners, was tortured and murdered by paramilitaries.

Francis will meet with Bolivian President Evo Morales, a prominent indigenous member of the bloc of socialist Latin American leaders who has won widespread support with folksy charm and prudent spending from a natural gas bonanza to cut poverty.

Full article available here: Pope Francis Tour

Source: Euronews

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