Temuco, Chile • Pope Francis denounced the use of violence to achieve political gains as he traveled Wednesday to the heart of Chile’s centuries-old conflict with indigenous peoples, where a spate of church burnings have been blamed on radical Mapuche factions pressing for their cause.
Hours after another church and three helicopters were torched, Francis celebrated Mass at a former military base that not only lies on contested Mapuche land but was also a former detention center used during Chile’s brutal dictatorship.
Leading around 150,000 people in a moment of silent prayer, Francis said the fertile green fields and snow-capped mountains of southern Araucania were both blessed by God and cursed by man, the site of “grave human rights violations” during the 1973-1990 dictatorship.