AFP, ASUNCION: Pope Francis decried the scourge of corruption as the “gangrene of a people” on Saturday in Paraguay, one of the poorest countries in South America and where graft is rampant.
The 78-year-old pope—in Paraguay on the last stop of a three-nation tour of South America—also railed against ideologies and hammered home the central theme of his trip to his home continent: equality.
Speaking to an enchanted crowd of 5,000 at a small stadium in the capital Asuncion, Francis drifted away from his scripted remarks, saying that “ideologies end badly, they do not work, they do not take into account the people.”
“Look what happened with ideologies in the last century... they ended in dictatorships, always,” he added, applause ringing out in response.
In a question-and-answer session, he denounced corruption, which plagues several countries in South America.
But perhaps to avoid offending his hosts, he stressed that it was a recurring problem “among all peoples of the world.”