Pope Leo XIV encourages Uruguay’s Catholic minority to keep — and spread — the faith

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — Pope Leo XIV on Saturday encouraged practicing Catholics in a secular society, and especially young people, to keep their faith strong and to live in virtuous ways that can attract people to the Church.

The pope made his remarks at an evening prayer vigil in a stadium in Uruguay’s capital, with about 70,000 people in attendance. Local authorities estimated that another 30,000 people were following the event nearby.

Uruguay is one of Latin Americaʼs most secular societies, where a majority of people have no affiliation with organized religion and the official state calendar has renamed Catholic holidays with secular terms, such as substituting Tourism Week for Holy Week.

Leo said the experience of faithful Uruguayan Catholics “can help brothers and sisters in other parts of the world who are beginning to discover, in different ways, what it means to be a minority.”

The pope consoled Uruguayan Catholics for their small numbers, noting that Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, was proverbially small and that, in the Eucharist, “the Lord of the universe is present under the humble appearances of bread and wine.”

Yet he said that Christians can draw…