Brazil ? Pope Benedict XVI ended his first pilgrimage to the Americas much as he began it: with a searing attack on diverse forces, from Marxism and capitalism to birth control, that he believes threaten society and the Roman Catholic faith.

And in comment likely to generate controversy in Latin America, the pope said indigenous peoples, “silently longing” for Christianity, had welcomed the arrival of European priests who “purified” them. Many indigenous rights groups regard the conquest as ushering in a period of disease, mass murder, enslavement and the shattering of their cultures.

A notably low turnout Sunday at his final Mass, which took place at Brazil’s most popular religious shrine, underscored the very problems he came here to address: a Catholic Church in decline.

Wrapping up five days in the world’s most populous Catholic country, the pope inaugurated a major conference of bishops from Latin America and the Caribbean, telling them they had to do a better job of grooming Catholics and building up the church.