TRUJILLO, Peru — Pope Francis consoled Peruvians who lost their homes and livelihoods in devastating floods last year, telling them Saturday they can overcome all of life's "storms" by coming together as a community and stamping out the violence that plagues this part of the country.
Francis travelled to an area of northern Peru that is frequently hit by "El Nino" storms and was inundated in 2017 by flooding that killed more than 150 people and destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes. Some residents are still living in tents.
At a seaside Mass for some 200,000 faithful, Francis said he wanted to come to the area to pray with those who lost everything and who must also contend with the "other storms that can hit these coasts, with devastating effects on the lives of the children of these lands."
He cited organized violence and contract killings, a major problem in Peru and in the north in particular. He said Peruvians have shown life's greatest problems can be confronted when the community comes together "to help one another like true brothers and sisters."
Extortion is common in northern Peru, especially around Trujillo and areas hardest hit by the floods. Bus drivers who don't pay up often see their minibuses torched. The violence is so prevalent here that Peruvian Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa wrote about it in his recent novel "The Discreet Hero," inspired by a Trujillo crime involving a businessman who resisted extortion.
In Trujillo the pope found a frustrated population hoping his visit can quicken the pace of reconstruction from the floods, the worst environmental disaster to strike Peru in nearly two decades. Of the 200,000 homes that collapsed in northern Peru during last year's storms only about 60 percent have been repaired, said Edwin Trujillo, an emergency coordinator for the Peruvian Red Cross.
"People are furious because authorities haven't done anything," said Carlos Bocanegra, 60, a biologist who lives in Trujillo.
Francis is the second pope to visit the coastal city, which is periodically drenched by disastrous rains caused by a warming of Pacific Ocean waters. Pope John Paul II came here in 1985, during a decade in which Peru was afflicted not only by El Nino floods but also hyperinflation and political violence.
"Peace should arrive through dialogue and not violence," the late John Paul II said during his visit.
Three decades later many of the same inequalities that existed back then remain entrenched, with poor, rural areas still unprepared to face the damage caused by environmental calamity. Bocanegra lamented that one year after the floods many streets in Trujillo are still contaminated by fungus and debris from the storms, estimated to have caused several billion dollars in damage.
He vividly remembers how the street in front of his house turned into a river so forceful it pulled furniture with its current.
"We were left trapped," he recalled.
Images of Peruvians forming human chains to help one another cross flooded roads and remarkable stories of survival from those who emerged alive from mudslides captivated the nation for months.
"In the midst of darkness, you, together with so many others, were like living candles that lit up the path with open hands," Francis said. "Ready to soothe the pain and share what you had, from your poverty, with others."
After celebrating Mass, Francis rode in the pope mobile through a Peruvian town with the same name as his Argentine birthplace: Buenos Aires. People lined the streets to greet him, some waving Argentine flags.
"For us it is a blessing that Pope Francis has come to Buenos Aires to see everything we have suffered," Carlos Covenas said.
The first pope from Latin America has traveled throughout the region since becoming pontiff five years ago but not to Argentina, leaving many of his compatriots scratching their heads and booking flights to see him in other countries instead.
The pontiff's visit to Chile earlier in the week was marred by protests over the Roman Catholic Church's response to priest abuse and fire bombings of churches — including one more overnight.
The Church of the Virgin of Candelaria, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) south of the capital, Santiago, was burned to the ground in what authorities are investigating as a likely act of vandalism.
Francis sparked a national uproar in Chile on Thursday when he accused victims of the country's most notorious pedophile priest of having slandered another bishop, Juan Barros. The victims say Barros knew about the abuse and did nothing to stop it — a charge Barros denies.
On Saturday, Francis' top adviser on clerical sex abuse implicitly criticized the pontiff over his accusations against victims, calling his words "a source of great pain for survivors of sexual abuse."
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