By Robert Pigott BBC Religious Affairs correspondent

The Pope's tour of the Americas is being followed by the BBC's Robert Piggott. In the second of his diaries, he reports on the canonisation of Guatemala's first saint.

Pope John Paul II has created more than 450 saints, and his critics have accused him of devaluing sainthood.

Saint Pedro will give the Church added credibility in Guatemala

But few in Guatemala would agree.

On Tuesday, the Pope canonised the country's first saint, Pedro de Betancur, achieving a coup for its beleaguered Roman Catholic Church.

Catholicism in Guatemala is an emotional business.

John Paul II's visits to the country - this was his third - are associated in the minds of Guatemalans with the bringing of hope in troubled times.

It was the same this time. There are well-founded fears of a resurgence of the political violence that blighted life in this most populous Central American country for more than 30 years.

And this time the Pope was bringing a gift that many of the hundreds of thousands who awaited him in Guatemala City's old race track saw as of incalculable value... a saint of their own.

Champion of the poor

As the stooped figure in creamy white robes and gold braided mitre appeared on the pop concert-style stage, a huge cheer echoed across the ground.

It seems to be a policy of the Pope's to elevate popular figures to sainthood to serve as Catholic role models

Among the faithful tightly packed on the grass, some people were already crying.

Others held up statues of Brother Pedro, a bearded monk in brown habit.

Repeatedly came the chant "John Paul - the whole world loves you!"

Pedro de San Jose Betancur is a saint after John Paul's heart.

He was born a poor shepherd in the Canary Islands in 1619 and made his way to Guatemala where he founded schools for the poor of Guatemala City, and persuaded the rich to pay for them.

Betancur also taught people how to pray, founding numerous chapels in the city for the purpose.

His Bethlehem Hospital for the poor still functions.

Role models

It was his care of the poor that the Pope focussed on in his address.

Hundreds of thousands attended the Mass

"Today the new saint represents an urgent appeal to practise mercy in modern society, especially when so many are hoping for a helping hand," he said.

Guatemala is among the poorest countries in Latin America.

Sixty percent of its 11 million people live on less than $2 a day. They include a high proportion of Guatemala's indigenous people, the Mayans.

These largely rural people are also leaving the Roman Catholic Church for protestant churches in large numbers.

It seems to be a policy of the Pope's to elevate popular figures such as Brother Pedro to sainthood to serve as Roman Catholic role models to whom local people can relate.

He expressed his "appreciation and closeness" to indigenous people, and reassured them: "The Pope does not forget you, and... encourages you to overcome with hope the sometimes difficult situations you experience."

Credibility

Evangelising protestant churches have been recruiting among the indigenous people by presenting Christianity as a means of transforming difficult lives in the short term, as well as earning ultimate salvation in heaven.

The Pope expressed his closeness to indigenous people

"The Roman Catholic Church has been going down in rural areas, among the Mayan people," said Juan Fernandez, as he left the mass.

"Now the pope has done this [created a Guatemalan saint], it will make all Guatemalans feel the Roman Catholic Church cares for them and is at the centre of the country."

No protestant leader could have done what the Pope could do - creating a national mascot.

The Catholic Church has made powerful enemies in Guatemala by investigating crimes against humanity during the civil war, and by pressing for poor agricultural workers to get land of their own.

Saint Pedro will, however, give the Church added credibility in Guatemala.

Important gesture

As the Pope left Guatemala on the next leg of his exhausting trip, to canonise another saint in Mexico, he took with him one more small victory.

At his urging, a bill is to be sent to Guatemala's Congress, proposing to outlaw the country's death penalty.

It may not succeed - the former military dictator General Efrain Rios Montt presides over Congress and opposes abolition - but the gesture was an important one.

A few hours later the Pope arrived in Mexico, and another welcoming ceremony in an aircraft hangar, more suited officials and purple hatted bishops.

This time he will canonise an indigenous Mexican and reinforce the status of Roman Catholicism as providing the nation's guiding principles.

However frail the figure climbing down the steps to be greeted by President Vicente Fox, he has to be taken seriously.