RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) - Pope Francis made an emotional plea Wednesday for Roman Catholics to shun materialism in the first public Mass of his initial international trip as pontiff, then returned to Rio de Janeiro to meet with drug addicts.
The session in Rio was meant to drive home the message that the humble pope has repeatedly delivered during his short papacy: that the church must focus on the poor, those who are suffering and the outcasts of society.
During his speech outside the hospital, Francis stuck with the theme of faith and sacrifice that he spoke about earlier in the day during his homily in Aparecida, a small town halfway between Rio and Sao Paulo that is home to one of the most important shrines in Latin America.
The pontiff urged Catholics to resist the "ephemeral idols" of money, power and pleasure.
Thousands packed into the huge Basilica of the Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida in an agricultural region of verdant fields.
Tens of thousands more braved a cold rain outside to catch a glimpse of the first pope from the Americas returning to a shrine of great meaning to the continent and to Francis.
Before the Mass, Francis stood in silent prayer in front of the 15-inch statue of the Virgin of Aparecida, the "Black Mary," his eyes tearing up as he breathed heavily. He later carried a replica of it in his arms.
Francis has entrusted his papacy to the Virgin Mary and, like many Catholics in Latin America, places great importance in devotion to Mary.
After his Mass, the pope blessed the tens of thousands gathered outside the basilica and announced that he would return to Aparecida in 2017, the year that marks the 300th anniversary of a fisherman finding the Black Mary statue in a nearby river.
Back in Rio, Francis arrived at the simple white and yellow Saint Francis of Assisi hospital in a closed car under a cold rain, and bounded out not bothering to wait for an umbrella.
He entered a small chapel where a group of young Franciscan friars waited excitedly, then headed back out into the rain to greet a group of people in wheelchairs.
The pope smiled widely and spoke in an animated manner with each person in the group, while a crowd held back by metal barriers nearby snapped photos and reached out to touch the pontiff, who returned the reach and grabbed hands and arms.