FLORIDA: Pope Leo XIV told men to treat their wives with respect, as he concluded the first leg of his tour of Latin America, which is plagued by gender-based violence.

“Dear fathers and grandfathers… treat your wives with respect, ask for forgiveness and live with integrity, even when doing so requires sacrifice,” the head of the Catholic Church said during a homily in Uruguay.

Over 3,800 women were killed in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2024 because of their gender, according to the UN’s regional economic mission.

Over the last five years, the region has recorded nearly 20,000 femicides, most of them committed by the victim’s current or former partner.

Leo is on a 12-day tour of the continent where he served as a missionary and a bishop before becoming pope. He wrapped up the first leg of his visit in largely secular Uruguay with an open-air mass outside a basilica in the south-central city of Florida.

Published in Dawn, November 9th, 2026