Pope Francis to champion poor in tour of South America

Pope Francis has left Rome for his first trip to Spanish-speaking South America, a ‘homecoming’ to a continent where he will champion the rights of the poor and of the planet.

His trip to Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay three of South America’s poorest and smallest countries, is Francis’s first abroad since his landmark encyclical ‘Laudato Si’ issued an urgent call for defence of the environment.

Francis arrived in the Ecuadorian capital Quito after a 13-hour flight from Rome.