TEMUCO, Chile-Pope Francis took the Chilean state and the country's largest indigenous group to task Wednesday over their failure to forge a truly unified nation, saying the government must do more than just negotiate "elegant" agreements and radical Mapuche factions must stop violence.
Francis' pointed homily in the heart of Chile's restive Araucania region came hours after two more churches and three helicopters were torched-attacks blamed on Mapuche radical groups demanding the return of ancestral lands and the release of Mapuche prisoners. No arrests have been made.
The outdoor Mass at the Maquehue Air Base was steeped in symbolism because of its own history: The land was taken from the Mapuche in the early 20th century and the location was also used as a detention and torture facility in the early years of Gen. Augusto Pinochet's military dictatorship.
Leading some 150,000 people in a moment of silent prayer, Francis said the fertile green fields and snow-capped mountains of the Mapuche heartland in Chile's southern Araucania region were both blessed by God and cursed by man, the site of "grave human rights violations" during the 1973-1990 dictatorship.
"We offer this Mass for all those who suffered and died, and for those who daily bear the burden of those many injustices," he said.
Francis also referred to the recent violence that has flared in Araucania, Chile's poorest region, and beyond. No one has claimed responsibility for the 11 firebombs that have damaged, or in some cases, burned churches to the ground in several parts of Chile in recent days. Investigators have found pamphlets promoting the Mapuche cause at some of the torched churches and by the helicopters set ablaze
overnight.