Pope Francis
offered a direct apology on Thursday for the complicity of the Roman
Catholic Church in the oppression of Latin America during the colonial
era, even as he called for a global social movement to shatter a “new
colonialism” that has fostered inequality, materialism and the
exploitation of the poor.
Speaking
to a hall filled with social activists, farmers, garbage workers and
Bolivian indigenous people, Francis offered the most ambitious, and
biting, address of his South American tour.