Pope goes inside notorious Bolivia jail

The Pope gave a speech to the deleg…

The 78-year-old Argentine pope arrived in Asuncion from Santa Cruz, Bolivia.

Evo Morales says he feels like he’s got a good friend and ally in the highest of places in his battle for revolutionary social change and halting global warming: Pope Francis. His escape is considered the first of many miracles in what would become the religious center of this poor nation of 6.8 million sandwiched between Bolivia, Argentina and Brazil.

The famously unpretentious pope used the fast food joint, which was closed for the morning for the papal visit, before walking to the nearby altar and beginning the Mass.

Pope Francis has given the world its newest basilica: At the end of his Mass Saturday at the Sanctuary of the Virgin of Caacupe, Paraguay’s most important pilgrimage site, officials read aloud a Vatican decree declaring the site a minor basilica.

The last leg of Pope Francis’ whirlwind tour through Latin America began Friday, where in Paraguay’s capital city he praised the friendliness and welcoming nature of its people, a nation that remains intact, he said, despite enduring awful sufferings brought on by war, fratricidal conflict, lack of freedom, and a general contempt for human rights.

When he was archbishop of Buenos Aires, the ex- Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio often visited a slum that is home to many Paraguayan immigrants, joining them in their religious processions and celebrating baptisms at their church, Our Lady of Miracles of Caacupe.

A member of the security detail holds an umbrella over Pope Francis upon his arrival to the Silvio Pettirossi worldwide airport in Asuncion, Paraguay, Friday, July 10, 2015.

The 50 women who serenaded the pope with a specially prepared song broke into tears when the people blessed them.

During Saturday’s Mass, Liselda Rojas, 44, stood with her daughter Maria, who suffers from cerebral palsy. The prison houses 500 female inmates, many of whom are detained on drug charges.

“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.

Francis has frequently spoken out about the plight of prisoners, denouncing the widespread abuse of pre-trial detention and calling life sentences a “hidden death penalty”.

Pope Francis shakes hands with Paraguay’s President Horacio Cartes at the presidential palace in Asuncion, Paraguay.

He urged inmates to not despair over the corruption-plagued justice system and not let their suffering lead to violence. “Don’t be afraid to help one another”. “The devil is looking for rivalry, division, gangs”.

However, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi is quoted by the Guardian as saying that the pope “is more likely to have uttered “eso no saba bien’ (‘I didn’t know that’) in bemusement at the origins of the present””. Inmates have the run of the place, drugs are cheaper than on the street and money buys survival. One of the victims was a 1-year-old.

Pope Francis flew into Paraguay Friday, and for many who waited in the rain to see the pontiff, he jetted by much too fast.

The prison is home to 120 children living with their parents, even though this is illegal under Bolivian law. “No authority did anything about it”. Another described his surprise on arriving at finding “so many people sleeping on the floor like animals”.

Bolivia has a notoriously corrupt judiciary, with some 1,000 judges and 300 prosecutors under investigation or on trial for corruption. Prison director Ana Coronel told The Associated Press that they had hoped the pope would enter the ex- convent and visit with them. “The police officers who guard the outside of the prison push you inside the prison and you’re on your friggin’ own”. Advocates for children say that with time, the imprisoned kids start to talk like inmates, adopting their lingo and referring to themselves as if they were criminal suspects.