Pope decries 'genocide' of Christians
July 10, 2015
The pope told a crowd of activists gathered in the Bolivian city of Santa Cruz that he was troubled by the violence waged against "our brothers and sisters" around the world.
Bolivia is the second stop on the pontiff's three-nation tour through his home continent of South America.
"Today we are dismayed to see how in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world many of our brothers and sisters are persecuted, tortured and killed for their faith in Jesus," Francis said.
"In this third world war, waged piecemeal, which we are now experiencing, a form of genocide is taking place, and it must end."
It's not the first time the pope has voiced concerns about the fate of Christians around the world. He's previously spoken out against the terror group "Islamic State," which has waged a campaign to persecute and convert religious minorities in the land it now controls in Iraq and Syria.
Pope asks forgiveness
The first Latin American pope also apologized and "humbly" begged forgiveness for the crimes committed by the Catholic Church against indigenous peoples during the colonization of the Americas.
"I say this to you with regret," he told the crowd of grassroots groups. "Many grave sins were committed against the native peoples of America in the name of God."
Earlier on Thursday, Francis delivered an open-air service to hundreds of thousands of Bolivians - including the country's first ever indigenous president, Evo Morales - who had packed into a plaza in central Santa Cruz. The 78-year-old pontiff urged the crowd to reject today's consumer society and denounced what he called a "mentality in which everything has a price, everything can be bought, everything is negotiable. This way of thinking has room only for a select few."
Francis, who has long been a champion of the poor and downtrodden, used a local Burger King restaurant to change into vestments before the two-hour Mass.
The pope is due to travel to Paraguay on Friday - the last stop on his tour, which began in Ecuador. He is set to fly back to Rome on Sunday.
nm/rc (AP, AFP, Reuters)