Pope Francis arrived Ecuador in a week-long tour

Pope Francis has arrived Ecuador, in his first visit since becoming pope to the Spanish-speaking part of South America, bringing a message of solidarity with the poor in the region, while trying to rally his church amid dwindling numbers.

The history's first South American leader of the Catholic church, arrived in the capital Quito at 19:40 GMT on Sunday for a week-long tour of the continent, which also includes stops in Bolivia and Paraguay.

Crowds had begun gathering on Sunday morning along the route from the airport to the papal nuncio's residence, where Francis will be staying.

More than a million Roman Catholics are expected at mass in Quito on Tuesday.

Francis, already seen by many as "the pope of the poor", chose to visit Ecuador, Bolivia, and Paraguay specifically because they are among the poorest and most marginal nations of a region that claims 40 percent of the world's Catholics.

He is skipping his homeland of Argentina, at least partly to avoid papal entanglement in this year's presidential election.

Francis had previously visited Portuguese-speaking Brazil in 2013.

Environmental concerns

Francis is also likely to raise environmental concerns with Correa and the leader of Bolivia - who have promoted mining and oil drilling in wilderness areas - given his recent encyclical on the need to protect nature and the poor who suffer most when it is exploited.

In that document, Francis called for a new development model that rejects today's profit-at-all cost mentality in favour of a Christian view of economic progress that respects human rights and safeguards the environment.

In a video message on the eve of his departure, Francis said he wanted to bring a message of hope and joy to all "especially the neediest, the elderly, the sick, those in prison and the poor and all those who are victims of this 'throwaway culture'."

Francis' other stops will include a violent Bolivian prison, a flood-prone Paraguayan shantytown and a meeting with Bolivian rubbish pickers, the sort of people he ministered to in the slums of Buenos Aires as archbishop.

Crowds are expected to be huge. While the countries themselves are tiny compared to regional powerhouses like Brazil and Argentina, they are fervently Catholic: 79 percent of the population is Catholic in Ecuador; 77 percent in Bolivia; and 89 percent in Paraguay, according to the Pew Research Center.