Elated crowds line streets to greet pontiff
Quito – Pope Francis wrapped up the first day of a gruelling three-nation South American trip on Sunday after greeting tens of thousands of jubilant people who lined the streets of Quito.
The journey, which will also see Francis travel to Bolivia and Paraguay, is the first visit by a pontiff to Ecuador in three decades.
The pope’s spokesman estimated that 500 000 people massed in the capital and thronged the roadsides to catch a glimpse of the pontiff as he took his Popemobile into the city, waving and smiling to the jubilant crowds.
Some threw confetti and danced as he cruised past, others waved the flag of Argentina, the pope’s home nation.
The 78-year-old pontiff had jetted in a short while earlier aboard an Alitalia passenger plane, in a sign of the austere simplicity he has sought to bring to his office.
Still smiling despite losing his skull cap just seconds after emerging from his plane and as the winds ruffled his cassock, he was met on the tarmac by a beaming Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa and the pair shared a warm embrace.
Indigenous children wearing traditional outfits lined the red carpet, while an orchestra played. Francis shook the children’s hands or kissed each of them, as a considerable security detail kept a discreet distance.
Before leaving the airport, the pope reportedly allowed fans to take selfies with him.
Then after nightfall, he made a surprise appearance to bless the faithful crowded outside the Holy See’s diplomatic mission where he is staying, and used a megaphone to implore the crowd to go home “and let others sleep.” –