Ecuador: Pope holds mass before 800,000 faithful

Pope Francis last night paid tribute to the family before some 800,000 faithful, the first mass on his tour of South America, reports the Patria news agency. 

 

-The family is the closest hospital and the first school for children, the pope said at an open-air mass in Guayaquil, in southwestern Ecuador.

Organisers expected more than a million faithful from the country, Peru and Colombia, but temperatures of 32 degrees and high humidity discouraged many believers. During the mass, the pope shielded himself from the sun with a cap, scarf and umbrella.

Upon arriving in Ecuador on Sunday evening, Francis emphasised the need to protect the poorest people, as well as the environment from exploitation harmful to the planet.

The pope deliberately chose to visit Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay during his tour, three countries considered the poorest and most marginalised on the continent.