Pope Leo Tells Uruguay's Catholics to Be 'Bridge Builders' During South America Tour

Pope Leo XIV urged Catholics in Uruguay, the most secular country in Latin America, to become "bridge builders" for their faith as he celebrated an open air mass on Saturday in the northwestern city of Paysandu, the second day of his 12-day tour of South America.

The 71-year-old pontiff is travelling through Uruguay, Argentina and Peru just three weeks after undergoing surgery for lung cancer, returning to the continent where he spent nearly two decades as a missionary. His stop in Uruguay is the first visit to the country by a pope in nearly four decades.

Latin America remains the world's most Catholic continent, but adherence has fallen sharply. The share of people who describe themselves as Catholic dropped from 80 percent to 55 percent over the past 30 years, according to a Latinobarometro poll.

In Paysandu, Leo called on Uruguayans to be "bridge builders" and to "share the joy" of their faith. He drew warm applause when he paid homage to mate, the herbal infusion sipped from a gourd through a metal straw that is a beloved local tradition.

Mate "teaches us to share and be together", the pope told the thousands of faithful who braved an early morning drizzle to attend the mass in a park, many of them clutching the hot drink. "Mate has even made its way to Rome", he joked.

Among the crowd was Gladys Soria, 81, who made the trip with her daughter Adela from a small town about 50 kilometres away. Soria told AFP she had recently undergone surgery and could barely walk, but "found the strength to come".

A day earlier, in the first speech of the tour delivered in a half-empty square in Montevideo, Leo advocated universal healthcare. He said his own lung cancer diagnosis had made him think of the "many men and women" who do not receive a timely diagnosis or treatment.

Without referring directly to euthanasia, which Uruguay legalised last year despite fierce opposition from the Catholic Church, the pope said each person should be supported to "live with dignity, receive the care they need, and be accompanied until the natural end of his or her life". The Church, he added, wants to "alleviate suffering whenever possible" and impress upon the sick that "their lives always retain meaning".

Later on Saturday the pope was due back in Montevideo to visit Casavalle, the neighbourhood with the capital's highest homicide rate, as well as the Catholic University and the Centenario Stadium, where he was set to preside over a prayer vigil for 60,000 people. On Sunday afternoon he travels to Argentina, the homeland of his predecessor Francis, where he will meet and give a speech to President Javier Milei, a self-proclaimed "anarcho-capitalist" seen as a close ally of US President Donald Trump, who publicly lambasted Leo earlier this year after the pope criticised the US-Israeli war on Iran. The tour concludes in Peru, where Leo served as bishop, took citizenship and is claimed as one of the country's own.