Papal trip to Brazil turns spotlight on Latin America

Published: 2007-05-01

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI is making his first trip to the Western Hemisphere in mid-May, traveling to Brazil to open a strategizing session with Latin American bishops. The May 9-13 visit begins with a string of pastoral events in Sao Paulo, where the pope will meet with young people and canonize the first Brazilian-born saint. Then he moves to the basilica of Our Lady of Aparecida, where he will inaugurate the Fifth General Conference of the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean, celebrating Mass and delivering a major speech to participants of the May 13-31 meeting. The trip turns a spotlight on Latin America, a geographical area that has had little attention from this pope to date, but where 43 percent of the world's Catholics live. It also broadens the horizons of the pope's two-year pontificate, taking him outside Europe, where four of his previous five trips have occurred.

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