Tuesday, July 7, 2015 was Pope Francis' second full day in Ecuador, the first stop on an eight-day trip that will also take him to Bolivia and Paraguay.
He celebrated a Mass Tuesday morning at Bicentennial Park in Quito, Ecuador's capital. Crowds were in place for hours.
More than 1 million Catholics turned out for the Mass, organizers say. The lines for Holy Communion were quite long.
Here are three key quotes from the Pope's homily Tuesday morning:
-- "Our unity can hardly shine forth if spiritual worldliness makes us feud among ourselves in a futile quest for power, prestige, pleasure or economic security."
-- "Evangelization does not consist in proselytizing ... but in attracting by our witness those who are far off, in humbly drawing near to those who feel distant from God and the church, those who are fearful or indifferent ..."
-- "How beautiful it would be if we could admire how much we care for one another, how we encourage and help each other."
He urged Latin Americans to channel that national spirit into spreading the faith on a continent where Catholicism is becoming less and less popular.
In a bid to counter the trend, Francis has called for the church today to return to being a missionary church that looks out particularly for society's poorest and most marginal.
He urged the continent's people to use the Gospel "as a way to unite our hopes, concerns, ideals and even utopian visions."
