Pope Leo urges South America to bridge divides on Uruguay stop of 12-day tour

Pope Leo on Saturday urged an estimated 40,000 people, many of whom waited overnight in the rain on the Uruguay-Argentina border for his visit, to bridge their differences as he toured a region marked by sharp political divisions. Leo, on an ambitious 12-day, three-country tour through November 17, travelled some 750 km (466 miles) back and ‌forth from Montevideo to Paysandu, a riverside economic hub in Uruguay's northwest, where crowds gathered in heavy rain that eased shortly before his arrival.

He was the first pope to visit the city on the Uruguay River, chosen by the Vatican as the location for Leo's first Mass in South America because it is accessible to pilgrims across the region. The crowd in a sprawling park on the southern edge of the city erupted into cheers and blew loud horns as ‌Leo toured in an open-top popemobile amid blustery winds.

In his sermon, Leo drew inspiration from the nearby General Artigas International Bridge, which connects Uruguay and Argentina. "It is not difficult to imagine the benefits a bridge brings: openness, ‌communication and exchange. That is why it is so important to be builders of bridges!" he said.

"This is the vocation to which we are all called: to build bridges, strengthen bonds, unite, communicate." Worshipper Mariano Méndez, 36, who travelled from Buenos Aires to see Leo, said the pope created "a very uplifting energy."

"The fact that he has come to visit Latin America truly fills your heart." POPE URGES REGIONAL COOPERATION

The 71-year-old pontiff is making one of the most demanding foreign trips by a Catholic leader in decades less than a month after undergoing lung cancer ⁠surgery. Leo, the first ​US-born pope, is visiting Uruguay, one of Latin America's more ⁠stable democracies, until Sunday on the first stop of a tour that will also take him to Argentina and Peru.

The Vatican has described the trip as a "homecoming" for Leo, who served as a missionary in Peru for decades and became a Peruvian citizen. The pope, who has ⁠forcefully decried the direction of global leadership in recent months, is expected to address a range of issues facing the continent on the tour, including environmental destruction, arms trafficking and regional political instability.

In his first address of the trip, given to Uruguay's government on ​Friday afternoon, he urged South American countries to tackle regional issues together and set an example for international cooperation. POPE TO VISIT TROUBLED MONTEVIDEO NEIGHBORHOOD

Leo on Saturday afternoon made a visit to Casavalle, a neighborhood ⁠on the northern outskirts of Montevideo scarred by violence and drug-related crime. The pope walked around the area, near makeshift houses with corrugated metal roofing and unfinished construction projects, before listening to several testimonies from local residents, including a mother who cried as she recounted raising a child while homeless.

Leo ⁠gave ​the woman a hug and in his own remarks urged Uruguayans to "shake off" apathy towards poverty and inequality and help those in need. "We cannot ignore the many people around us who are suffering," he said. Pablo Coimbra, pastor of a church near where Leo visited, told Reuters before the pope's arrival that he hoped Leo would lift the spirits of a community that often feels overlooked.

"It is an area forgotten by governments and institutions," Coimbra ⁠said of the neighborhood, classified as a police "red" zone, where residents often hear gunfire amid territorial disputes between drug dealers. Leo will later lead a night-time prayer vigil expected to draw some 60,000 young people at Montevideo's ⁠Centenary Stadium, home to the national soccer team and host of ⁠the inaugural 1930 FIFA World Cup.

The pope wraps up his Uruguay visit on Sunday morning. On Sunday afternoon he heads to Argentina, where he will give a speech to President Javier Milei, a libertarian seen as a close ally of US President Donald Trump, who lambasted Leo earlier this year after the pope criticized the Iran ‌war.