FPSC, together with the Prestomedia Agency and Mediatrends organized a breakfast meeting regarding the next visit of the Pope Francis to Latin America under the title “The Pope in America: Expectations in Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay”. The event took place the 3rd of June in the NH Hotel Giustiniano in Rome.

The Ambassador of Ecuador in the Holy See, Luis Latorre; the Ambassador of Paraguay, Esteban Kriskovic and the Chargé d’affaires of Bolivia, Erika Farfán Mariaca, participated in the meeting, in which the three of them highlighted the closeness of Pope Francis with Latin America, as they share language, culture and roots.

Precisely, Luis Latorre spoke about the link that Pope Bergoglio created with Ecuador on a visit he paid when he was still the Archbishop of Argentina. He also emphasized the good relationship between him and the President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, which consequently makes the Ecuador people feel closer to the Church.

As for Erika Farfán, she recognized the previous difficulties of Evo Morales with the local Church. Nevertheless, these difficulties were solved thanks to Pope Francis, especially when the President of Bolivia paid a visit to the Vatican.

In her own words, “the trip will leave a message of peace, faith and conversion and it will unite population at all levels and families”.
Source: Mediatrends

About the sea claims with Chile, the Chargé d’affaires indicated that “it is a delicate topic, and it would not be included in the trip”, which should encourage “the coordination of differences in Latin America”.

To sum up, Esteban Kriskovic named the trip as a “God’s blessing” and said that during his stay there will not be any useless activity. He also showed some social works that are being carried out with young people at risk of social exclusion, who collaborate with all the arrangements for the Pope’s visit, and stressed as symbolic the visit of Bergoglio to the Marian Sanctuary of Caacupé.

This will be the ninth foreign travel for the Pope Francis, the second to Latin America. The visit is expected to start in Ecuador (6th-8th July), then it will continue in Bolivia (8th -10th July), and it will finish in Paraguay (10th-12th July).

Further information can be found in this link (Spanish).