--- description: Many of the residents were from South America title: Watch Pope Francis' Surprise Visit to a Roman Shantytown image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [faith](/tag/faith/) ## faith Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Watch Pope Francis' Surprise Visit to a Roman Shantytown by [Laura Stampler](/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Feb 9, 2015 1:52 PM CUT by [Laura Stampler](/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Feb 9, 2015 1:52 PM CUT Pope Francis took a [detour](http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2015/02/09/pope-francis-makes-surprise-visit-to-rome-shantytown-with-video/ "undefined") Sunday and stunned the residents of a Roman shantytown with a surprise visit. Italian television station TV2000 captured a video showing the Pope laughing with the shocked crowd, many of whom originated from South America, Reuters reports. “How many of you here speak Spanish?” the Argentinian Pope asked. He was met with a boisterous response: “Todos!” \[[_Reuters_](http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2015/02/09/pope-francis-makes-surprise-visit-to-rome-shantytown-with-video/ "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3700764/pope-francis-rome-shantytown/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3700764/pope-francis-rome-shantytown/"},"headline":"Watch Pope Francis' Surprise Visit to a Roman Shantytown","datePublished":"2015-02-09T13:52:08.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T04:15:17.063Z","description":"Many of the residents were from South America","url":"https://time.com/3700764/pope-francis-rome-shantytown/","keywords":["faith","Pope Francis topic","World","pope","Rome"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Laura Stampler","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/faith/","name":"faith"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3700764/pope-francis-rome-shantytown/","name":"Watch Pope Francis' Surprise Visit to a Roman Shantytown"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"2013 Person of the Year: Pope Francis Reimagines the Papacy","description":"From his comments on gays to his penchant for Twitter, Pope Francis's every move has garnered strong reactions from the world media.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/aYRnrfUV/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2013-12-11T12:42:10.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/aYRnrfUV.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3700764/pope-francis-rome-shantytown/","duration":"PT3M30S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3700764/pope-francis-rome-shantytown/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```