One of them, Ubirai Pataxo, removed his headgear and handed it to the pope, who immediately put it on his head as photographers snapped pictures.
“This headdress is a protection amulet which links the spirit and the Earth. There is no better person than the pope to receive it,” he told reporters.
“I am deeply honored. We are all Catholic and the pope is a spiritual leader for all peoples,” Pataxo said.
Indigenous people represent one percent of Brazil’s 194 million people and occupy 12 percent of the national territory, mainly in the Amazon.
Later at the vigil, one of the highlights of World Youth Day, a Catholic fest that wraps up Sunday, Francis told the crowd: “Here in Brazil, as in other countries, soccer is a national passion.”
“Now, what do players do when they are asked to join a team? They have to train, and to train a lot. The same is true of our lives as the Lord’s disciples,” said the pope, a fan of Buenos Aires club San Lorenzo.
“Jesus offers us something bigger than the World Cup,” the 76 year old pontiff said. “You are the athletes of Christ.”
The Vatican has been alarmed by the growing strength of Evangelical Protestant churches in Brazil coupled and by the spread of secularism.
Francis called for a “church able to dialogue with those disciples who, having left Jerusalem behind, are wandering aimlessly, alone, with their own disappointment disillusioned by a Christianity now considered barren, fruitless soil.”
He used a mass to challenge priests to bring the message of the Gospel to the world’s slums.
“It is in the favelas… that we must go to seek and serve Christ,” he told thousands of bishops, priests and seminarians from around the world gathered for a mass at Rio’s St. Sebastian Cathedral.
“We cannot keep ourselves shut up in parishes, in our communities, when so many people are waiting for the Gospel,” he said.
Francis, wearing a white overcoat because of the cold, rainy weather, rode in his open-sided Popemobile, waving and blessing the faithful lining up the avenue along the Copacabana beachfront.
“We are ready to pass the night praying,” said James Ramos, a 35 year old Australian as he awaited Sunday’s mass that will also wrap up World Youth Day.
Separately, a group of about 100 activists staged a “Slut Walk” in support of women’s rights and a secular state.
“Less bible, more orgasm,” said Gabriel Rodrigues, an 18 year old student.
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