Pope says Inca heartland ‘suffering’ as villages empty

SANTA CRUZ DE SUCCHABAMBA, Peru: Pope Leo XIV warned Saturday that the heartland of the ancient Inca Empire was “suffering,” as the remote, poverty-stricken communities he served as a missionary in Peru shrink dramatically. The head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics flew by helicopter to the isolated town of Santa Cruz de Succhabamba in the Andes mountains — an…