In Lat Am, Pope urges husbands to respect wives amid femicide crisis

"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.

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

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.

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 libertarian whose austerity policies have drawn sharp criticism from the Catholic Church.

The high point of his visit is expected to be the third and final leg of his tour, which takes him to Peru.

Leo has a special connection to the Andean country where he spent nearly two decades as a missionary, including eight years as a bishop.