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Pope Leo XIV Set for South America Tour After Cancer Surgery

Updated 5:20 AM ET · 12:24 AM ETConfirmed

Faith Desk

In Short: Pope Leo XIV will embark on a 12-day tour of South America, including Uruguay, Argentina, and Peru, despite undergoing lung cancer surgery.

Pope Leo XIV is set to embark on a 12-day tour of South America, beginning on November 6 and concluding on November 17, 2026, despite undergoing lung cancer surgery earlier this month.

Leo's tour includes 12 flights, two helicopter trips, and a high-altitude prayer in the Andes. The trip is expected to draw millions of faithful, with officials anticipating up to 7 million pilgrims.

The Vatican has confirmed that the trip will proceed as planned, with no changes to the itinerary. The pope's physician, Luigi Carbone, stated there are no medical reasons preventing the journey.

The visit to Cusco, Peru, at 3,400 meters above sea level, will last under three hours but will be closely watched, given the recent surgery.

The trip carries particular personal significance for Leo, who spent more than two decades as a missionary and bishop in Peru before becoming pope.

Christopher White, a Georgetown University professor and author of a book on Pope Leo, said, 'This will be the most closely watched trip of Leo's papacy to date.'

Background

What's confirmed

• Leo has said he is "looking forward to returning to the continent where I've experienced so many moments of my life" with the November 6 to 17 tour, which includes 12 flights, two helicopter trips, and a high-altitude prayer in the Andes.
• The 71-year-old head of the Catholic Church underwent an operation fewer than three weeks ago to remove a cancerous tumour, but doctors say he requires no further treatment and have given him the all-clear for the 11-day South America trip.
• Though the Vatican has said Leo is still in recovery, the pope will lead over 50 events, from open-air masses to meetings with Indigenous peoples in the Amazon, clerical abuse victims, and the elderly, poor and disabled.
• The head of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics will start his trip in Uruguay, Latin America's most secular country, where he will be welcomed by left-wing President Yamandu Orsi.
• "This will be the most closely watched trip of Leo's papacy to date," Christopher White of Georgetown University in Washington and author of a book on Pope Leo, told AFP.
• Millions of faithful are expected to flock to see the pope, who will mix pastoral encounters with speeches to leaders including Argentine President Javier Milei, a close ally of US President Donald Trump whose relationship with the Church is strained.
• The pontiff will then travel to Argentina, the homeland of his predecessor Pope Francis, who disappointed many Argentinians by not returning to visit during his papacy.
• "I know he's very much looking forward to his return to Peru. It means a lot to him personally... he has been very determined to go," US Vatican expert Elise Ann Allen, who has written a biography of the pope, told AFP.
• "If the pope is able to pull this off, it will only bolster the image that much of the world has had of Leo since his election -- of a youthful, strong, vigorous pope," White said.
• Pope Leo XIV is about to embark on one of the most ambitious papal foreign trips in decades, touring Uruguay, Argentina and his adopted homeland Peru, despite recent lung cancer surgery.
• "Based on his current clinical status, as well as the instrumental and laboratory tests performed, there are no contraindications that would prevent him from undertaking his upcoming apostolic journey to Latin America as planned," the Vatican said in a statement on Monday.
• His visit to Cusco, at 3,400 meters, will last under three hours but will be closely watched, amid questions over whether the pope has underestimated his cancer or beaten it with apparent ease.

What's still developing

• In Buenos Aires, the pope will sit down with Milei, a right-wing libertarian who had a tense relationship with Francis.
• Pope Leo XIV delivers the Angelus noon prayer in St.
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• Stefano Margaritora told Vatican News, adding that he expected the pope to recover fully from surgery “in another 10 days or so.” Leo, 71, is scheduled to make an ambitious Nov.
• "The Pope is following medical recommendations with great care and diligence, and with a deep determination to continue serving the Church."
• Doubts about the pope's ability to undergo the South American trip surfaced again last week, when, on the advice of his doctors, Leo canceled a visit by helicopter to Assisi for an international peace gathering to take place Tuesday.
• With less than two weeks to go until his Apostolic Journey to Uruguay, Argentina, and Peru, Pope Leo XIV has renewed his “great joy and enthusiasm” to undertake this journey on November 6-17.
• He first went to Peru as an Augustinian missionary in 1985 and subsequently spent almost half of his priestly life—some 20 years—both as a missionary priest and bishop there before Pope Francis called him to Rome in 2023 to head the Vatican’s Dicastery for Bishops.
• He will visit 10 cities in three countries and participate in some 51 events.
• 26, just 13 days after the pope underwent surgery at Rome’s Gemelli hospital to remove a malignant tumor from his right lung.

Sources

• AFPlink
• CBS Newslink
• Globalnationlink
• Kuwait Timeslink
• WarpBeat — background on Pope Leo XIV to Visit Uruguay, Argentina, and Peru Despite Recent Surgery link
• WarpBeat — background on Pope Leo XIV to Visit South America After Cancer Surgery link
• Wikipedia — background on South America link
• EWTN Radio — video link