Pope Slams Violence, Child Deaths In Wealthy Uruguay
Pope Leo XIV on Saturday condemned violence that has claimed the lives of children in Uruguay, one of South America’s wealthiest countries which has emerged as a new hub in the drug trade. Just three weeks after undergoing surgery for lung cancer, the 71-year-old pontiff is on a 12-day tour of the continent where he served nearly two decades as a missionary. Leo walked amid high security through the streets of Casavalle in Montevideo, where the murder rate is four times the national average, and where residents say they hear gunfire every night. “There are children in Uruguay who do not go to school for fear of never returning home,” the pope said. “In a country as rich in resources as this, children should never have to go to bed hungry… Much less should they have to suffer violence to t…
