During his visit to Uruguay, which he described as the most secular country in Latin America, Pope Leo XIV encouraged Catholics to find strength in their role as a small community. The Pontiff called on the faithful to make their faith visible through education, charity and care for older people.
The high point of the visit was a vigil on 7 November at the Centenario Stadium in Montevideo. According to the organizers, the free tickets for around 70,000 seats were sold out in less than three hours. Compared with the Pope's large events in France, Spain and Africa, attendance in Uruguay was lower overall. The fact that the tickets sold out so quickly shows that interest in the visit was greater than the widespread distance from the Church might suggest.
The background is a long development of the separation of Church and State. The separation was already enshrined in the constitution of 1918. Since then, religious instruction has been removed from public schools and crucifixes have been removed from public spaces. The state has also renamed Christmas as "Family Day" and Holy Week as "Tourism Week". In addition, same-sex marriage, abortion and euthanasia have been legalized.
According to the 2024 Latinobarómetro survey, around 35 percent of Uruguayans describe themselves as Catholic, while more than half say they belong to no religion. Catholics report experiencing social pressure and hostility when they speak out publicly against these laws. Other believers, by contrast, say they do not feel persecuted. Attitudes toward secularism are divided even among Catholics themselves, and this is one of the tensions the Church faces in the country.
The Pope stressed that secularism must enable believers and non-believers to live together freely. Neutrality, however, must not confine religion to the private sphere. This distinction ran through several stops of his visit and placed at the center the claim that faith also has a place in public life.
The figures clearly show the change. In 1980, there was one priest for every 4,940 inhabitants; in 2024, it was one for every 9,700. Over the same period, church weddings fell from 8,673 to 1,649, and first Communions dropped from 15,449 in 1990 to 4,087 in 2024. The interdiocesan seminary received no new candidates in 2024. For the parishes, this means fewer pastors are available for a growing number of people without a religious affiliation, while life-cycle celebrations are becoming less frequent.
In Casavalle, a district of Montevideo, the Pope visited a parish and called for cooperation between Church, State and civil society in the fight against poverty and insecurity. There, the visit's claim became concrete: faith should prove itself through social engagement, regardless of how many people share it. At the Catholic University of Uruguay, he also spoke to students. The university had already received Pope John Paul II in 1988, which places the visit within a longer line of papal encounters in the country.
What long-term effect the visit will have on Catholic practice in the country is currently open. Whether the strong response to the vigil can be translated into lasting participation in worship services, sacraments and parish life cannot be determined from the available information.