This Sunday, November 8, Pope Leo XIV urged men to respect their wives as he concluded the first leg of his tour of Latin America. In the last five years, the region registered almost 20,000 cases of murdered women, the majority at the hands of their partner or ex-partner.
First modification: 09/11/2026 - 00:12Last modification: 09/11/2026 - 00:27
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Pope Leo XIV urged men on Sunday to treat their wives with respect, as he concluded the first leg of his tour of Latin America, a region plagued by gender violence.
"Dear parents and grandparents... treat your wives with respect, ask for forgiveness and live with integrity, even when it requires sacrifices," the head of the Catholic Church said during a homily in Uruguay.
According to the UN regional economic mission, more than 3,800 women were murdered in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2024 because of their gender.
In the last five years, the region has recorded nearly 20,000 femicides, most of them committed by the victim's current or former partner.
Leo XIV is on a 12-day tour of the continent where he served as a missionary and bishop before becoming pope.
He concluded the first stage of his visit to Uruguay, a largely secular country, with an open-air mass in front of a basilica in the city of Florida, in the south-central part of the country.
The basilica houses a sanctuary linked to Uruguay's fight for independence from Spanish colonial rule.
"Let us pray for those who have the responsibility of governing (Uruguay), so that they may seek with integrity the good of all," the pontiff told the crowd outside the sanctuary.
Thousands of worshipers packed the city's main square for the ceremony, enjoying the warm sun after several days of unusually cold weather caused by an exceptionally intense El Niño phenomenon.
"I think it is very important that the pope came because it strengthens the presence of the Church in our country," said Ivanna Fisichella, 22, who attended the mass.
Evangelina Campero, 57, highlighted "the effort the Pope is making" by undertaking a grueling tour just three weeks after undergoing surgery for lung cancer.
"The message is to give it your all," he said.
The pontiff, 71, later landed in Argentina, where he met with President Javier Milei, a right-wing free-market advocate whose austerity policies have drawn sharp criticism from the Catholic Church.
Milei came to power in 2023 after a period of center-left Peronist government, campaigning with a chainsaw as a symbol of the deep cuts to public spending he promised to make to shore up the country's finances.
Fortunato Mallimaci, a sociologist at Conicet, the Argentine research agency, said León's visit to Argentina will create a feeling of unity and energy among those who feel excluded by Milei's economic program.
The Pope's itinerary in Argentina includes visits to a care center for people with disabilities and a prison, which underlines his interest in making visible groups that are often marginalized in society.
Jorge Silanes, religious director of the Little Cottolengo Don Orione care center, which will receive the pope on Monday, said the visit had additional meaning because Milei's spending cuts have reduced disability benefits while poverty remains widespread.
Milei was known for hurling insults against Leo XIV's predecessor, Francis, an Argentine who never returned home during his 12-year papacy. Despite calling Francis "an imbecile," Milei ultimately sought to mend fences and visited the late pope in the Vatican.
"Milei gains nothing by fighting" with the pope, said Verónica Giménez Beliveau, a sociologist at the University of Buenos Aires. "What could gain is showing an orderly country and administration," he added.
With AFP and Reuters
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