PAYSANDÚ, Uruguay — Thousands of people poured into a city on the Uruguay River on Saturday for Pope Leo XIV’s first Mass in South America, as the pontiff sought to raise the profile of the Catholic Church in Uruguay, the region’s most secular country.

More than 30,000 people — many from Uruguay but also from neighboring Argentina and Brazil — had registered to attend the Mass in the Parque París Londres, a sprawling green space on the southern edge of Paysandú — a city that no pope has ever visited before.

Paysandú, around 375 kilometers (230 miles) from the capital, Montevideo, was hosting Leo’s first Mass at the start of his three-nation South American tour that was in doubt after he underwent lung cancer surgery on Oct. 13.

Crowds of faithful in rain ponchos, many in the Vatican’s yellow, began streaming in when the gates opened at 5:30 a.m. as a band played popular Spanish hymns. Some in the crowd said they were deeply moved that Leo pressed on with his ambitious 12-day tour despite his recent cancer diagnosis.

“He’s the representative of Christ but he’s human. And we weren’t sure if he could make it, but he pushed through for us,” said Soledad Sánchez, 73, who had driven to Paysandú from northern Uruguay, her eyes filling with tears. “He made it here to give us a message of peace because he knows our world needs it right now.”

Leo, who arrived in Uruguay on Friday and had an intense afternoon and evening of events, is seeking to urge the people in South America’s most secular country, with a population of 3.5 million, to turn to the Catholic faith for strength in confronting today’s problems and challenges.

He was to press that message later Saturday by touring a Montevideo neighborhood beset by drug trafficking and gang violence, where the church is working with municipal authorities to build housing and provide rehab programs for addicts.

His final event, too, was likely to drive home the call to reject religious indifference and embrace the faith: a prayer vigil in Montevideo’s Centenary Stadium.

At an evening vespers service Friday in Montevideo’s cathedral, Leo acknowledged many people here don’t even know about the faith or its heritage that is intrinsically tied to Uruguay’s independence and nationhood. The Catholic Church, for example, had no new seminarians in 2024, though a few have since entered training for the priesthood.

Leo told the seminarians, priests and bishops to model themselves on Christ to attract the faithful.

“One of the secrets of evangelization is to resemble the one whom we proclaim,” Leo said. “In this land, where many of our contemporaries barely know Jesus Christ and so many young people have grown up far from the life of the Church, that witness has a special power.”

Located in western Uruguay and just across a bridge from the eastern Argentine city of Colón, Paysandú was easier to reach for many Argentines than any of the stops on Leo’s part of the tour in Argentina, his next stop after Uruguay.

In Argentina, Leo will visit Buenos Aires, Luján and Córdoba before heading to Peru, his second homeland and the final destination of his tour.

“Argentina is a much more religious country than Uruguay, and there’s this desire to be here to witness something historic,” said Luciana Lobato, 20, an Argentine tour agent who organized buses of 180 pilgrims from across the border.

Some young Catholics involved in local church groups hoped the sight of a pope drawing crowds would challenge Uruguay’s image as a country indifferent to religion.

“The reality I see in my town is that there are tons of young people who are really interested in religion, who are trying to find meaning and community in difficult moments,” said Teresa Sabellini, 18, from Paysandú.

“And now look around here. This place is full of people,” she added.

Still, Paysandú itself greeted the pope quietly, as though it were an ordinary weekend, with scant decorations and only a few homes seen flying Vatican flags.

Saturday’s Mass is dedicated to Blessed Jacinto Vera, a 19th-century priest who became Uruguay’s first bishop. Leo praised him on Friday as a pastor who traveled the country’s roads to help the poor, saying that people who met him “found something of Christ’s goodness” even before he preached.

Some younger attendees on Saturday said Leo’s humane tone and emphasis on care for the vulnerable resonated beyond the faithful in their secular country as people grapple with a turbulent world.

“I wouldn’t call myself religious, but I like this pope. He has a really good message for humanity,” said Santiago Biglieri, 18, a Colombian who lives in Uruguay. “Even for the nonbelievers, there’s something to take from his ideas.”

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Winfield reported from Montevideo, Uruguay.

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