Taking his eco-friendly message to the
masses, Pope Francis called for a new system of global justice based on human
rights and care for the environment rather than economic profits.
"The goods of the Earth are meant
for everyone," the Pope said, "and however much someone may parade
his property, it has a social mortgage."
Francis' call for environmental
protection, a prevalent theme in his papacy, came on the second full day of his
weeklong tour of South America. He was speaking to a group of civic leaders and
indigenous people at San Francisco Church in Quito, Ecuador's capital city.
Later this week, Francis will visit
Bolivia and Paraguay. Like Ecuador, both countries are home to vast natural
resources but also problems like deforestation, pollution and widespread
poverty.
In recent months, indigenous groups have
protested Ecuador's president, Rafael Correa, saying that his promotion of
drilling and mining near the Amazon rainforest could ruin their ancestral
homeland.
On Tuesday night, the Pope left little
doubt about whose side he takes.
"The tapping of natural resources,
which are so abundant in Ecuador, must not be concerned with short-term
benefits," Francis said.
Lecturing students and teachers
Earlier on
Tuesday, the Pope told Catholic students and educators that the purpose of
education is not to boost our social status or pad our bank accounts, but to
find creative ways to help the poor and save the environment.
In an impassioned speech -- it was as
animated as Francis has been thus far in his South American trip -- the Pope
raised his voice, urging students to "make a fuss" and telling
teachers not to "play the professor."
The setting for Tuesday's speech was the
Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador, where a crowd of thousands gathered
under drizzling skies.
"My question to you, as educators,
is this: Do you watch over your students, helping them to develop a critical
sense, an open mind capable of caring for today's world?" the Pope asked.
"Are you able to encourage them not to disregard the world around
them?"
That kind of education, Francis said,
only takes place outside of the classroom. Like a teacher underlining an
important point -- Francis taught high school and was rector of a college in
Argentina -- the Pope raised his voice and pumped his arms.
"As a university, as educational
institutions, as teachers and students, life itself challenges us to answer
this question: What does the world need us for? Where is your brother?"
He urged the students, who cheered at
the mention of their name, that the mark of a good education is a feeling of
"greater responsibility, in the face of today's problems, to the needs of
the poor, concern for the environment."
Those two themes, poverty and care for
creation, are intricately intertwined, the Pope argued inhis recent encyclical,
"Laudato Si." Vatican officials said that Pope Francis
chose the nations on this trip to highlight the political and spiritual lessons
contained in the 180-page letter to the world.
3 ways Pope Francis is shaking up the
church: Politics, places and people
Tuesday was Pope Francis' second full day in
Ecuador, the first stop on an eight-day trip that will also take him to Bolivia
and Paraguay.
He celebrated a Mass Tuesday morning at
Bicentennial Park in Quito, Ecuador's capital. Crowds were in place for hours
-- as was the choir, which sang a song about "Santo Padre" (Holy
Father) almost all morning.
More than 1 million Catholics turned out
for the Mass, organizers say. The lines for Holy Communion were quite long.
In his homily (sermon), Francis
connected the themes of political liberty and religious evangelism, drawing
loud cheers from the crowd. He noted that Bicentennial Park commemorates
Ecuador's independence from Spain and called on Catholics to set aside their
differences and be "builders of unity."
The Pope continued an early theme of his
visit at the Mass: focusing on faith rather than geopolitics. Ecuador's
president, Rafael Correa, has tried
to portray Francis as a close
ally, but the pontiff has kept his rhetorical distance, declining to explicitly
endorse the embattled Ecuadorian.
Here are three key quotes from the
Pope's homily Tuesday morning:
-- "Our unity can hardly shine
forth if spiritual worldliness makes us feud among ourselves in a futile quest
for power, prestige, pleasure or economic security."
-- "Evangelization does not consist
in proselytizing ... but in attracting by our witness 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 ..."
-- "How beautiful it would be if we
could admire how much we care for one another, how we encourage and help each
other."
On Monday
On Monday, at
another Mass, the Pope focused his sermon on the family and hinted that changes that some Catholics might
consider "scandalous" could
be coming to the church.
Francis was a bit vague about what he
had in mind, but he said that bishops meeting this fall will be looking for
"concrete solutions" to some of the challenges facing modern
families. Most likely, he was referring to how the church ministers to divorced
Catholics and LGBT families.
Pope says families need a miracle, hints
at 'scandalous' changes for the church
After the Mass, the Pope met an old
friend and had lunch with the
Jesuit community. (Francis is the first Jesuit pope.) He also took many, many
selfies throughout the day and shook many, many hands.
It took Francis nearly an hour to get
through the line Monday night at the presidential palace. He's 78, but he has
the smile and the stamina of a much younger man.
It's clear that Ecuadorians are super
excited about seeing the first Latin American Pope's on his first trip to
Spanish-speaking countries. This gallery
of papal memorabilia conveys some
of the essence.
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