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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