Pope will highlight indigenous issues and the Amazon during his trip to South America
A billboard welcomes Pope Francis to Temuco, Chile, on Jan. 9, 2018. (Esteban Felix / Associated Press)
Pope Francis on Monday begins a weeklong visit to Chile and Peru that is expected to highlight the plight of the continent’s indigenous peoples, the decimation of the Amazon rainforests and the struggles of immigrants and the poor.
The trip will mark the Argentine pope’s fourth visit to South America, following his trip to Colombia in September.
A series of gasoline firebomb attacks on Roman Catholic churches in Chile before the pope’s arrival has dramatized tensions in the church here, which has been riven by cases of clergy sexual abuse.
No one was injured in the attacks overnight Friday on three churches in the capital, and damage was minimal from the crude strikes with gasoline-filled bottles. But following the incidents, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet called on Chileans to receive the pope in a “climate of respect.”
A fourth attack occurred early Sunday at a church in Melipilla, outside Santiago.
It was not clear who was behind the strikes, and authorities downplayed the significance, but the firebombings were clearly timed to coincide with the pope’s visit.
“The next bombs will be in your cassock,” threatened pamphlets found outside one of the targeted churches.
The pamphlets also championed the cause of Chile’s Mapuche indigenous group, which has been engaged in a battle for the return of ancestral territories and for other rights.
On Wednesday, the pontiff is slated to travel to the central city of Temuco to celebrate Mass and meet with Mapuche representatives. Several Mapuche leaders condemned the firebombings and rejected violence as a means of social change, a sentiment echoed by other Chilean officials.
“There is no place for violence in a democracy,” said Claudio Orrego, regional governor of the Santiago area.
Also in Chile, victims of clergy sexual abuse have been pushing for a meeting with the pope during his visit here, though no such meeting had been formally scheduled.
Workers on Jan. 14, 2018, set up the stage on which Pope Francis will officiate the first open-air Mass during his visit to Chile, at O'Higgins Park in Santiago. (Pablo Porciuncula / AFP/Getty Images)
Many Catholics here were outraged at the pope’s appointment in 2015 of Bishop Juan Barros Madrid to head the diocese of Osorno, about 510 miles south of the capital. Barros has denied covering up allegations of abuse by a prominent Santiago priest, Father Fernando Karadima, who was sentenced by the Vatican in 2011 to a life of prayer and penance for sexual abuse of children and adults.
The pope is scheduled to be in Chile from Monday to Wednesday before heading to Peru for the second leg of his journey. Massive crowds are expected for a number of outdoor celebrations. Officials in both countries said security was being beefed up before the papal visit.
Emotions were running high in advance of the visit to the two largely Catholic nations. Images of the pope and signs welcoming him were already beginning to line the streets of cities he is planning to visit.
While Francis, a native of Buenos Aires of Italian ancestry, has never visited his Argentine homeland as pope, many Argentines are making the trip to neighboring Chile to pay homage to their compatriot, the first pope from the Americas.
The pope is scheduled to meet with the presidents of both countries — Bachelet in Chile and Pedro Pablo Kuczynski in Peru — along with hosting bishops, priests and representatives of the youth. He is also slated to meet with female prisoners at a jail in Santiago.