ecuador Close to 1M hear pope’s plea for unity

Los Angeles Times (TNS)

QUITO, Ecuador

Pope Francis, delivering his second massively attended sermon in his tour of South America, made an eloquent plea Tuesday for unity and inclusiveness on his native continent through what he portrayed as a more welcoming form of evangelization.

Speaking at this capital’s Bicentennial Park, which commemorates the independence from Spain that most of Latin America won two centuries ago, the pope also linked that struggle for freedom with the call to follow God.

“There was no shortage of conviction of strength in that cry for freedom, which arose a little more than 200 years ago,” the pope said, speaking in Spanish.

“But history tells us that it only made headway once personal differences were set aside, together with the desire for power and the inability to appreciate other movements of liberation which were different” yet not in opposition.

Francis’ message appeared aimed at disconnecting the often abusive evangelization of colonial-era Spanish Catholics from a broader embrace of the faith.

“Evangelization does not consist of proselytizing,” he said, departing from a prepared text to say that knowing God should be as simple as tapping on the door.

“No one is excluded,” he said, reiterating a common theme in his first trip as pope to Spanish-speaking Latin America. In 2013, he visited Portuguese-speaking Brazil.

Today he is to travel to Bolivia, then to Paraguay.

Tens of thousands of pilgrims, from all over Ecuador as well as neighboring countries, had been camping out at the park since the start of the week in anticipation of what is likely to be the pope’s largest event in this country.

Some estimates put the crowd at more than 800,000. Interior Minister Jose Serrano said via Twitter that as many as 900,000 people may have attended. They braved early-morning showers and chilly air.

“Being near Pope Francis is like a miracle; any sacrifice is worth it,” said Omar Eudoro Velasquez, a merchant who had traveled seven hours from Pasto, Colombia, with his wife and 16-year-old son.

The Mass was using 300,000 Communion wafers, the governmental newspaper El Ciudadano reported, made by the nuns of the 17th-century El Carmen Alto monastery, founded as the first site in Ecuador of the Order of Discalced Carmelites.

In his homily, the pope also made a plea for unity, part of a concept known as “patria grande,” or vast fatherland. The pope frequently has called for unity as a way to overcome society’s ills, reduce divisive and violent tension and include those who otherwise would be marginalized. The promotion of this concept on his native continent is of special importance to him, Vatican specialists say.

Like Jesus, the pope said, “we too encounter daily a world torn apart by wars and violence. It would be facile to think that division and hatred only concern struggles between countries or groups in society.

“Rather, they are a manifestation of that ‘widespread individualism’ which divides us and sets us against one another.”

Mankind must not respond with “nonchalance,” he said, or complain that “the problems are too big.” Instead, “we must respond by taking up the cry of Jesus and accepting the grace and challenge of being builders of unity.”