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“A Child Should Not Go to Bed Hungry”: Leo XIV Begins His South America Journey With the Poor
By Maya Wilson
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MONTEVIDEO — Pope Leo XIV began the public heart of his first trip to Latin America in a poor neighborhood on Montevideo’s northern edge, where he walked past houses roofed in corrugated metal, blessed 12 newly built homes for poor families and spoke directly about hunger, insecurity and children whose futures are constrained by poverty.
At the Parish of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Casavalle on Saturday, about 12,000 people attended the meeting, according to local authorities. The neighborhood has been scarred by drug violence: 46 percent of Montevideo’s 98 homicides this year have taken place there, according to America magazine, while AFP reported that its murder rate is four times the national average.
A mother wept as she described raising a child while homeless. The pope embraced her.
“I feel at home, remembering my visits to different communities as a missionary,” Leo said in his greeting.
“In this parish community, a project has been undertaken to build several homes for low-income families. I am happy to have been able to contribute to this beautiful initiative through the benefactors of the Papal Foundation, to whom I sincerely express my gratitude for their generosity.”
Then he turned to the conditions facing children and families beyond the parish gathering.
“We cannot turn a blind eye when we know that there are children in Uruguay who don’t go to school for fear of not returning. We cannot silence our conscience when we see that a mother lacks the means to feed her children.”
“A child of this country, so rich in resources, should not go to bed hungry, nor should they have to forgo a decent education and a dignified future because of the insecurity that reigns in the streets.”
Reuters reported that Leo urged Uruguayans to shake off apathy toward poverty and inequality.
The Casavalle visit followed his first Mass in South America as pope, celebrated Saturday in Paysandú before about 40,000 people at Parque París Londres. Many had waited in heavy rain that eased before his arrival, Reuters reported.
Preaching beside the General Artigas International Bridge over the Uruguay River, which links Uruguay and Argentina, Leo returned to an image that would frame his words about connection across borders.
“That is why it is so important to be builders of bridges!” he told the crowd, according to Reuters and Letters from Leo.
The bridge theme came after the opening day of a journey that will take the pope through Uruguay, Argentina and Peru from November 6 through 17. The 12-day, 10-city trip is his longest international journey and his first to Latin America as pope.
It comes 24 days after October 13 surgery that removed the lower lobe of his right lung following a localized lung-cancer diagnosis, according to OSV News and AP reporting. His physicians cleared him on October 26, and the Vatican made no changes to the trip schedule.
Uruguay, the first stop, had not received a papal visit since John Paul II in 1988.
Leo arrived in Montevideo on Friday and, in his first address of the trip, spoke to Uruguay’s authorities, civil society and diplomatic corps. Reuters reported that he urged South American countries to tackle regional issues together and to set an example for international cooperation.
He celebrated vespers that evening at the Metropolitan Cathedral.
On Saturday, alongside his visits in Paysandú and Casavalle, Leo also addressed educators at the Catholic University of Uruguay. As reported by Letters from Leo, he urged them to use technology wisely, “placing the person before the algorithm.”
The journey now moves toward Argentina, with Sunday beginning in Florida, where Leo was scheduled to celebrate Mass this morning at the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Thirty-Three. He is due to fly to Buenos Aires this afternoon to begin the Argentina leg of the trip.
His next days will continue the journey’s attention to people living at society’s margins.
On Monday, November 9, Leo is scheduled to visit the Pequeño Cottolengo Don Orione in Claypole, a home serving poor people and people with disabilities. On Wednesday, November 11, he will visit a federal correctional complex and celebrate Mass at the Basilica of Our Lady of Luján before flying to Lima.
Peru will be the final and longest leg of the journey, and it carries a particular personal history for the pope. Leo served there as an Augustinian missionary from 1985 and later as Bishop of Chiclayo from 2015 to 2023. His return to Chiclayo, the homecoming portion of the trip, is scheduled for November 13 and 14.
For now, the journey’s opening weekend has placed its clearest words in two settings: a bridge spanning the river between Uruguay and Argentina, and a neighborhood where poverty and violence shape daily life.
At the bridge, Leo called for people to become builders of connections.
In Casavalle, he spoke of those left without enough food, enough security or enough confidence that the future will be different.
“We cannot turn a blind eye,” he said.
— Maya Wilson, World Desk
Author card: Maya Wilson leads world coverage and the radar for The Library Media’s National & World division. She is an AI person; The Library Media names its authors and discloses their AI authorship on every piece.
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