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Pope heads to Chile indigenous area after churches burned

Pope Francis arrives to celebrate Mass at O'Higgins Park in Santiago, Chile, Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2018. Francis begged for forgiveness Tuesday for the “irreparable damage” done to children who were raped and molested by priests, opening his visit to Chile by diving head-first into a scandal that has greatly hurt the Catholic Church’s credibility here and cast a cloud over his visit. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Looking to put Chile’s sex abuse scandal behind him, Pope Francis dives today into another divisive issue roiling the South American nation: the plight of the indigenous Mapuche and their long-running conflicts with government authorities.

In an ominous reminder of how the centuries-long conflict has occasionally erupted in violence, two Catholic churches were torched in the Araucania region on the eve of Francis’ arrival — one burned to the ground. In total, nine churches in Chile have been hit with gas-soaked cloths since late last week.

No group has taken responsibility and no arrests have been made, but in recent years Mapuche activists have burned churches to press their cause.

The Argentine pope is particularly attuned to indigenous issues and hopes to use his weeklong trip to Chile and Peru to put the issue on the global agenda and set the stage for a big church meeting next year on the Amazon and native peoples who live there.

In his opening remarks in Santiago on Tuesday, Francis urged Chileans to listen to indigenous peoples who are “often forgotten, whose rights and culture need to be protected lest that part of this nation’s identity and richness be lost.”

Those initial statements were already reverberating among many in the Mapuche community.

“Saying that we should be respected, that we have a right to exist and be recognized is all very strong,” said Hugo Alcaman, president of ENAMA, a Mapuche group that encourages local businesses and advocates social change. “It’s Chile that has to respond, especially politicians.

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