2 million attend Pope Leos final Argentina event ahead of Peru homecoming
LUJAN, Argentina, Nov.11, (Reuters) – Pope Leo wrapped up his visit to Argentina on Wednesday with a final event drawing 2 million people, before continuing on his 12-day South America tour with a visit to Peru in an emotional homecoming for the first Peruvian citizen to lead the Catholic Church.Leo, on a three-nation tour through Nov.
17, celebrated an outdoor Mass at the shrine of Our Lady of Lujan, Argentina’s most important Catholic devotional site, where throngs of pilgrims gathered for days in advance for a chance to see him.Crowds stretched for miles outside the shrine, about an hour west of Buenos Aires.People pressed against security barriers, chanting “Leo, Leo, Leo” and waving white-and-yellow Vatican flags as he arrived in an open-air popemobile.Some in the crowd had walked as far as 10 km (six miles) to arrive, as many streets, including a main highway, were closed as a security measure.In his sermon, Leo asked God to protect Argentina and urged Argentines to have a place for everyone in their society, “especially those who are most in need: the poor and the hungry, migrants, the sick and prisoners.”The pope on Wednesday also visited one of Argentina’s largest penitentiaries, where he hugged several inmates and urged guards to treat detainees humanely, amid a three-day visit to Argentina that has highlighted the Church’s criticism of President Javier Milei’s cuts to social programs.The pope, who has US and Peruvian citizenship, will then begin a personal leg of the most intense overseas trip by a pope in decades, returning to the place he served as a missionary for about 20 years before becoming pope last year.Leo began the trip less than a month after lung cancer surgery and has appeared in good form over the intense itinerary, giving long speeches in a firm, clear voice.The Peru visit, expected to include emotional scenes as the pope visits old friends and spends three days in the northern city of Chiclayo, whe...