Francis has sought to encourage the poorest and most marginal during his three-nation trip, and his stop in Paraguay will showcase life in the country's flood-prone shantytowns alongside the simple popular faith of its people.
Francis knows Paraguay well, having ministered to Paraguayan immigrants in the slums of neighbouring Argentina when he was archbishop.
His affection for its people was on display upon his arrival in Asuncion, praising the Paraguayan women who were so important to the country's recovery after a devastating regional war in the 1860s wiped out more than half the population, most of it male.
He encouraged Paraguay's moves toward a stable democracy and economic growth after the violent 1954-1989 dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner.
He also called for "unceasing efforts" to crack down on corruption. Paraguay, a tiny land-locked country of just under 7 million, has long had problems with government graft.
"I know that there is the firm desire to banish corruption," he told President Horacio Cartes at the presidential palace. "May there be an end to violence, corruption, drug trafficking."
The pope started the day in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, where he listened on as inmates at the notorious Palmasola jail told their stories of how they ended up at the jail and of the "judicial terrorism" that lets the wealthy bribe their way to freedom while the poor languish in squalor.
Two children of inmates sat at Francis' feet as he looked out to a mass of prisoners in central square of one of the prison's many walled wardens.
"You may be asking yourselves 'Who is this man standing before us?'" the pope told them. "The man standing before you is a man who has experienced forgiveness. A man who was, and is, saved from his many sins."
Francis has made prison ministry a focus of his life as a priest and now pope, believing that the lowest castes of society deserve just as much dignity as everyone else.
He has denounced the widespread abuse of pre-trial detention and called life sentences a "hidden death penalty".
He has met with prisoners to offer them encouragement, and as pope continued to check in on a group of Argentine inmates he ministered to when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires.
Yesterday, he acknowledged the wretched conditions that the inmates face - overcrowding, the slow pace of justice, violence and few opportunities for education or rehabilitation. He said Bolivian institutions need to address those ills.
But he urged the inmates not to despair and to not let their suffering lead to violence.
"Don't be afraid to help one another," he said. "The devil is looking for rivalry, division, gangs."
Francis also urged prison officials and guards to rehabilitate prisoners and not humiliate them, saying prison should be a process of rehabilitation, not punishment.
