Pope calls world leaders 'cowards'

Speaking to grassroots organizers in Bolivia, the Pope called on the poor and disenfranchised to rise up against "new colonialism," including corporations, loan agencies, free trade treaties, austerity measures, and "the monopolizing of the communications media."

There is quite a lot to unpack in the speech, including the Pope's apology for the "many grave sins" committed by Catholic Church against Native Americans "in the name of God."

And the speech was pretty long, as even the Pope admitted:

1. "This system is by now intolerable: farmworkers find it intolerable, laborers find it intolerable, communities find it intolerable, people find it intolerable ... The earth itself ... also finds it intolerable."

2. "And behind all this pain, death and destruction there is the stench of what Basil of Caesarea, one of the church's first theologians, called 'the dung of the devil.' An unfettered pursuit of money rules. That is the dung of the devil."

3. "Working for a just distribution of the fruits of the earth and human labor is not mere philanthropy. It is a moral obligation. For Christians, the responsibility is even greater: it is a commandment."

4. "It is not enough to let a few drops fall whenever the poor shake a cup which never runs over by itself."

5. "I humbly ask forgiveness, not only for the offenses of the Church herself, but also for crimes committed against the native peoples during the so-called conquest of America."

6. "The new colonialism takes on different faces. At times it appears as the anonymous influence of mammon: corporations, loan agencies, certain 'free trade' treaties, and the imposition of measures of 'austerity' which always tighten the belt of workers and the poor."

7. "Our common home is being pillaged, laid waste and harmed with impunity. Cowardice in defending it is a grave sin. We see with growing disappointment how one international summit after another takes place without any significant result."

Pope Francis also called the recent persecution of Christians a "genocide."

"Today we are dismayed to see how in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world many of our brothers and sisters are persecuted, tortured and killed for their faith in Jesus. This too needs to be denounced: in this third world war, waged piecemeal, which we are now experiencing, a form of genocide -- and I stress the world genocide -- is taking place, and it must end."

Read a Catholic priest's take on the Pope's "revolutionary" speech: The Pope's clarion call for justice.

Below are some other fascinating moments from the Pope's weeklong visit to South America.

A Communist crucifix

Pope Francis celebrated Mass with nearly a million Bolivians in Santa Cruz on Thursday. But the scene that has set a thousand tongues wagging is a gift from Bolivian president Evo Morales.

On Wednesday evening in La Paz, Morales presented Francis with wooden crucifix laid atop a hammer and sickle, the Communist symbol conceived during the Russian Revolution.

You can see the symbol in the photo below.

(CNN)