Pope Leo XIV wrapped up his visit to Uruguay on Sunday by marking an important Catholic feast day that is tied to the country’s independence, capping his effort to draw attention to the role the church played in the founding of Latin America’s most secular country. Leo travelled to the city of Florida, north of Montevideo, before heading to Argentina for the second leg of his three-nation tour of South America. It's expected to be the most politically delicate, given the Catholic Church's sharp criticisms of the austerity programme of libertarian President Javier Milei. For his final event in Uruguay, Leo was commemorating the feast of the Virgin of the Thirty-three. Every year, thousands of pilgrims flock to Florida on the second Sunday of every November to pray before the small wooden icon of the Virgin Mary housed there. According to tradition, 33 independence patriots acquired the Guaraní statue and had it with them when independence was declared from the Brazilian empire in Florida on August 25, 1825. Leo became the first pope in nearly four decades to visit Uruguay, in hopes of reminding its people that the Catholic Church is part of their very identity as a nation – even if in subsequent...
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