Pope Francis was flying to Bolivia last night after drawing about 1.5 million people to Masses in Ecuador on the first leg of a “homecoming” tour, where he urged the world to take better care of the environment and the poor.

Later yesterday the Argentine-born Pontiff was spending his last few hours at a home for the elderly in Ecuador’s highland capital Quito and at a shrine just outside the city where he was meeting priests, nuns and seminarians.

He was then due to fly to high-altitude La Paz, in Bolivia. Oxygen tanks are kept at the airport for arriving passengers who may struggle with the thin air. That would focus attention on the 78-year-old Pope’s health as he had part of one lung removed when he was younger after an infection that almost took his life.

Outside La Paz, Pope Francis was expected to stop at the spot where the body of Jesuit Father Luis Espinal Camps was found in 1980. The priest, who was a strong supporter of the rights of miners, was tortured and murdered by paramilitaries.

Pope Francis is meeting Bolivian President Evo Morales, a prominent indigenous member of the bloc of socialist Latin American leaders who has won widespread support with folksy charm and prudent spending from a natural gas bonanza to cut poverty. After the Pope flies to Santa Cruz in western Bolivia, he will celebrate Mass and tomorrow he will visit the notoriously violent Palmasola prison.

Pontiff to visit the notoriously violent Palmasola prison in Bolivia

In Ecuador, the Pope held two Masses, both attended by hundreds of thousands of people, in Quito and the steamy coastal city of Guayaquil.

He met with President Rafael Correa, who has faced anti-government protests in recent weeks though leaders of the demonstrations called a moratorium during the Pope’s visit as a sign of respect to the Pontiff.

“The Pope has opened our hearts with his messages, helping us to move forward, especially important in a country where we lack faith, unity and understanding,” said Victoria Zambrano, a 38-year-old doctor who travelled across the country to attend Tuesday’s Mass in Quito.

Pope Francis waving to the faithful while riding on a popemobile in El Quinche, Ecuador, yesterday.Pope Francis waving to the faithful while riding on a popemobile in El Quinche, Ecuador, yesterday.

Ecuador highlights, possibly more than any other country in the world, the inherent difficulties within the Pope’s recent environmental encyclical. The country earns around one-half of its foreign income from oil, yet is also one of the world’s most biodiverse nations, with more endangered species than anywhere else. A large amount of the oil that the socialist government hopes will help feed the poor, though, is locked up under rainforest land.

In his final speech in Quito, the Pope focused on this conundrum.

“The tapping of natural resources, which are so abundant in Ecuador, must not be concerned with short-term benefits,” he said.

“We received this world as an inheritance from past generations, but also as a loan from future generations, to whom we will have to return it!”

During a Mass in Quito, the Pope celebrated the region’s 200 years of independence from European powers and urged unity.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.