Pope Leo urges men to respect wives amid Latin American femicide crisis

Pope Leo XIV told men to treat their wives with respect Sunday, as he concluded the first leg of his tour of Latin America, which is plagued by gender-based violence.

"Dear fathers and grandfathers ... treat your wives with respect, ask for forgiveness and live with integrity, even when doing so requires sacrifice," the head of the Catholic Church said during a homily in Uruguay.

More than 3,800 women were killed in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2024 because of their gender, according to the UN's regional economic mission.

Over the past five years, the region has recorded nearly 20,000 femicides, most of them committed by the victim's current or former partner.

Read morePope warns of growing mental health crisis, domestic violence at Barcelona vigil

Leo is on a 12-day tour of the continent where he served as a missionary and a bishop before becoming pope.

He wrapped up the first leg of his visit in largely secular Uruguay with an open-air mass outside a basilica in the south-central city of Florida.

The basilica is home to a shrine linked to Uruguay's fight for independence from Spanish colonial rule.

"Let us pray for those who bear the responsibility of governing (Uruguay), that they may seek with integrity the good of all," the pope told ​crowds outside the shrine.

Thousands of worshippers packed the city's main square for the service, basking in warm sunshine after several days of unusually cold weather triggered by an exceptionally strong El Nino.

"I think it's very important that the Pope came because it strengthens the Church's presence in our country," 22-year-old Ivanna Fisichella, who attended the mass, told AFP.

Evangelina Campero, 57, highlighted "the effort the pope is making" by embarking on a gruelling tour just three weeks after undergoing surgery for lung cancer.

"The message is to give it your all," she said.

The 71-year-old pontiff will later travel to Argentina, where he will meet President Javier Milei, a right-wing free marketeer whose austerity policies have drawn sharp criticism from the Catholic Church.

Milei swept to power in 2023 after a run of centre-left Peronist rule, campaigning with a chainsaw as a symbol of the deep cuts to state spending he pledged ‌to make to shore up the country's finances.

Read moreArgentina's poverty rate climbs to nearly one in three under Milei

Over his 18-month papacy, Leo has forcefully warned about the risks of artificial intelligence, urged world leaders to treat immigrants more humanely and called for action ​to address climate change, appeals that have put him at odds with US President Donald Trump and other right-wing leaders.

Fortunato Mallimaci, a sociologist at Argentina's Conicet research agency, said Leo's visit to Argentina will create a sense of unity and energy among those who feel excluded by Milei's economic programme.

The pope's itinerary in Argentina includes visits to a care centre for people with disabilities and a prison, underscoring his focus on highlighting groups that are often pushed to society's fringes.

Jorge Silanes, religious director of the Pequeno Cottolengo Don Orione care centre that will welcome the pope on Monday, said the visit carried ⁠added significance because Milei's spending cuts have reduced disability benefits while poverty remains widespread.

Milei was known for piling insults on Leo's predecessor, Francis, an Argentine who never came home during his 12-year papacy. Despite calling Francis "an imbecile," Milei eventually sought ⁠to repair relations and visited ​the late pope at the Vatican.

"Milei doesn't win anything by fighting with (Leo)," said Veronica Gimenez Beliveau, a sociologist at the University of Buenos Aires. "He could gain in showing an orderly country and administration," she said.