After a chaotic start then a day's rest in Rio, this third day of Pope Francis' first foreign trip brings the Argentine pontiff to Brazil's patronal shrine of Aparecida – a stop added at his own insistence, both in token of Jorge Bergoglio's intense Marian devotion and to recall one of his key stops on the road to the papacy.
The site of the last decennial plenary of the continent's bishops in 2007 – whose closing manifesto, a call for a "continental mission" of evangelization in the face of a declining number of Catholics and a boom among Evangelicals, was drafted under Bergoglio's watch – the inland sanctuary's second papal visit in six years begins with Francis' touchdown at 9.30am local (8.30am ET, 1430 Rome), followed by Mass an hour later and wrapping up with a lunch.
Said to have an interior capacity of 45,000 people, the mammoth Aparecida basilica – dedicated only in 1980, the latest of several churches on the site – is, according to some estimates, the global church's most-visited Marian shrine, a status attained only in recent years.
Set to go live around 8 Eastern, the video-feed's below – to be joined by Francis' text in English once it's delivered....
by Rocco Palmo via Whispers in the Loggia
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