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In Pictures: Pope Visits Brazilian Favela

During the fourth day of his first foreign visit, Pope Francis headed to the Varginha favela in Rio de Janeiro.

As NPR's Lourdes Garcia Navarro described it to our Newscast unit, the shantytown was not prettied up for the pope. Its river remained clogged with sewage and dirt, and the houses were still slapped together.

"It's an extremely poor community," Lourdes said. "I think the pope wanted to come here to highlight his very personal message of affinity with the poor."

Francis — the first Latin American pope — will finish his day with a speech in front of thousands at the iconic, and much wealthier, Copacabana beach.

The story, we think, is best told in pictures. So we'll leave you with a slideshow:

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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Eyder Peralta is NPR's East Africa correspondent based in Nairobi, Kenya.
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