Pope Leo XIV told tens of thousands of young people packed into Montevideo's Centenario stadium on Saturday night to dare to marry and start families, using a candlelit vigil to push back against what he called the advance of secularism in Latin America.

"Don't be afraid of forever," the pope told the crowd, which filled the 60,000-seat soccer venue while thousands more gathered outside. He urged married couples to stay open to children even when the world calls them a burden.

"Pope Leo, we love you so much!" worshippers chanted. Montevideo Archbishop Daniel Sturla told the crowd that having the pope among them was an amazing goal.

A day in a hard-hit neighborhood

Earlier Saturday the 71-year-old pontiff visited Casavalle, a poor Montevideo district where the murder rate is about four times the national average. Residents told him about gun violence and abuse. He blessed 12 new low-income homes paid for by the church.

"In a country as rich in resources as this, children should never have to go to bed hungry," Leo said, adding that no child should face violence that costs them their life.

He also celebrated his first Mass of the trip in the western city of Paysandú before about 40,000 people. He drew applause by praising mate, the herbal drink shared from a gourd across the region. He joked that it has even made its way to Rome. At the Catholic University of Uruguay he urged schools to put the person before the algorithm in the age of AI.

Next stops Argentina and Peru

On Sunday Leo was set to celebrate Mass at the national shrine of the Virgin of the Thirty-Three in the city of Florida, where about 200 gauchos on horseback planned to greet him, before flying to Argentina, the homeland of the late Pope Francis. Argentina is deploying nearly 53,000 security officers for the visit.

From Argentina the 12-day tour continues to Peru, where the American-born pope served for about two decades as a missionary and as bishop of Chiclayo and where he also holds citizenship. The trip comes less than a month after he had surgery for lung cancer. He told reporters on the flight from Rome that he felt in fairly good shape.