Pope Francis celebrates Mass in Bolivia

(L’Osservatore Romano/Pool Photo via AP).

Shortly after arriving in Bolivia, in the presidential palace, President Evo Morales handed Pope Francis a gift: a crucifix carved in the shape of a hammer and sickle.

Prior to Bolivia, Pope Francis spent three days in Ecuador, and will move on to Paraguay on Friday afternoon.

The pope made his speech at the end of his first full day in Bolivia, where he arrived on Wednesday.

In one of his first engagements in Bolivia yesterday, Pope Francis urged civil authorities to respect religious freedom in order to allow Christians to play their part in civil life.

The Catholic News Agency posted a Vine of the exchange, demonstrating that the Pope was not happy with his gifts. It’s 2.6 million people are mostly of European descent and are wealthier than those in most areas of the country, one of the poorest in the Americas. He said that by materialistic logic, everything becomes an object that can be consumed and negotiated.

Jesus, he said, will provide flasks of the finest wine “for those who, for whatever reason, feel that all their jars have been broken”.

Latin America counts 40 percent of the world’s Catholics, but the church is losing out to Protestant evangelical ministries that have focused on the continent’s poorest communities with real-life guidance on employment and education.

When Francis headlined the first such summit at the Vatican last October, he issued a remarkable, off-the-cuff monologue on the injustice of unemployment, the scandal of poverty and the man’s obligation to care for the Earth.

“Tierra, Techo, Trabajo”, was his mantra then.

He said he supported their efforts to obtain “so elementary and undeniably necessary a right as that of the three “L’s”: land, lodging and labor”.

“No está bien eso [‘This is not okay]”, Francis reportedly murmured when he was presented with the award. “The Pope took as the center pointe of his homily Jesus” prayer to the Father on the evening before he offered himself for the salvation of the world: “Father, may they be one…so that the world may believe”.

Contributing to this story was David Agren in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. One group of 25 Trinitarios indigenous from Beni, Bolivia tried to perform a traditional dance near the altar and were removed.

Members of another group, the Guarani, sold feathered headdresses to pilgrims, who travelled from Argentina, Brazil and Colombia to try to catch a glimpse of their pope.

Dora Villaruel, a social science professor from Santa Cruz, said, “The pope is showing the inequality that we all need to overcome”.

Morales gave his interview in Santa Cruz, a city of ornate colonial architecture and industrial warehouses, on the second day of a visit by Pope Francis to Bolivia amid a thawing of frosty relations between the Catholic Church and the government. Under his leadership Bolivia’s economy has boomed thanks to high prices for its natural gas and minerals. According to the Guardian, coca is the main ingredient in cocaine, but when it’s used to help people with various ailments (pain, fatigue, etc.), it’s not looked at as a narcotic by those who use it. In fact, the report indicates that people in Bolivia would compare drinking coca tea to drinking coffee.

Francis has impressed people with his stamina as he walked amid crowds, kissed people and took selfies.

Referring to the Eucharist, the Pope noted how July 9 marked the inauguration of the Fifth Eucharistic Congress, which will be held in Tarija, in Bolivia’s south.