Pope asks pardon for church s crimes against indigenous

Francis said such cowardice is “a grave sin”.

That is a powerful statement, from the Argentine pope, the first Latin American pontiff, and delivered in Bolivia, whose people suffered so much colonial depredation. He told them the future of humanity is fundamentally not in the hands of great powers and elites but of the common people.

“The church stole our land and tore down our temples in Cuzco and then it built its own churches – and now it charges admission to visit them”, she said.

Beginning in the 1500s, Spanish conquerors, with the blessing of the Church, subjugated and enslaved indigenous peoples in the Americas, annihilating native cultures and forcing their conversion to Christianity.

The Pope recalled that they had been “committed sins against the originiarios peoples of America in the name of God”. In 2000, John Paul made a blanket apology from the Vatican, asking forgiveness from Jews, ethnic populations on different continents and other groups.

“Some may rightly say, ‘When the pope speaks of colonialism, he overlooks certain actions of the church, ‘ ” Francis said. And Alfredo Marco, 48, a taxi driver and representative of neighborhood councils in Santa Cruz, praised the pope as speaking the “same language as President Evo, the same words”. He said Bolivian institutions need to address those ills.

The third inmate described his astonishment arriving at the prison to find “so many people sleeping on the ground like animals”.

The 78-year-old pontiff, on the fifth day of his three-nation tour of South America, is showing a few signs of fatigue but generally appears to be holding up well despite the changes in altitude and temperature. The government set up jumbo screens along the roads for those unable to get close to the papal altar, even though they had camped out.

At the meeting, which was sponsored by the Vatican and organised with Morales’ assistance, the pope denounced the global financial system as unjust and unsustainable.

The meeting is attended by 1,500 indigenous peoples, peasants and members of other social groups.

Police held the three men for more than 14 hours in the city of Santa Cruz.

Thousands in the crowd were from Bolivia’s indigenous majority: Quechua, Guarani and Aymara Indians.

Pope Francis returned Bolivian president Evo Morales’ gift depicting Jesus Christ nailed to a hammer and sickle.

One of the medals was named for the Rev. Luis Espinal, the Jesuit activist slain by Bolivian paramilitaries in 1980.

“The monopolistic concentration of media is ideological colonialism”, he said. Francis’ criticism of multinational corporations and global capitalism has already brought him criticism and suspicions among some who question the leftist tint of his ideas. But Lombardi said it wasn’t known what the pope had said.

The effort includes extra ambulances, helicopters and specially outfitted airplanes, as well as military hospital tents and portable bathrooms.

The Paraguay government declared Friday and Saturday national holidays in honor of the pope’s visit.

The present was given to the pope during a visit to the presidential palace in La Paz on Wednesday.

Witnesses gave mixed reports of the Pope’s reply when he received the gift, which he promptly handed to an aide.

In one telling sign of the city’s development, the store that was used for the Pope to change into his vestments at the mass site had the insignia of the Burger King fast food chain above its door.

The staff at the restaurant were apparently more than happy to assist the Pope.

Pope Francis listens to a welcome speech at the Don Bosco school where he met with seminarians and clergy in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, Thursday, July 9, 2015. That economy kills. That economy excludes.

Morales’ gift prompted speculations from conservative Catholics who claimed that Pope Francis was being “manipulated for ideological reasons”, The Guardian wrote.

Hundreds of thousands have packed into Christ the Redeemer square and the streets beyond.