Pope wraps up tour of South America with visit to Paraguay slum

Pope Francis put into practice his insistence that the world’s poor not be left on the margins of society by visiting a flood-prone slum outside Asuncion on Sunday on the final day of his three-country South American tour. The pontiff was greeted with shrieks from residents of the Banado Norte shanty on the banks of the Paraguay River as he walked by. His followers also reached out to touch his white cassock and snap a photo with their cellphones. “Now I can die peacefully,” said Francisca de Chamorra, an 82-year-old widow who moved to the shanty in 1952.

It’s a miracle that a pope has come to this muddy place.

Shanty dweller Francisca de Chamorra

Francis has spent much of the past week — and before that much of his pontificate — railing about the injustices of the global capitalist system that he says idolizes money over people, demanding instead a new economic model where the Earth’s resources are distributed equally among all.In Banado Norte, Francis saw people living in shacks made of plywood and corrugated metal. A few weeks ago, pigs were rummaging through garbage searching for leftovers. For weeks, residents in the area and authorities have been preparing for the visit, doing everything from draining some of the roads to making rosaries to give the pope as gifts.

Putting bread on the table, putting a roof over the heads of one’s children, giving them health and an education - these are essential for human dignity, and business men and women, politicians, economists, must feel challenged in this regard

Pope Francis

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