Home · Faith · Nov 3 archive
For Pope Leo, Peru trip is more homecoming than state visit
Confirmed
In Short: Pope Leo XIV departed Rome on Nov. 6 for a 11-day tour of Uruguay, Argentina, and Peru, despite undergoing lung surgery earlier this month.
Pope Leo XIV departed Rome on Nov. 6 at 7:50 a.m., beginning a 11-day tour of Uruguay, Argentina, and Peru, despite undergoing lung surgery earlier this month.
The pontiff's itinerary includes 12 flights, two helicopter trips, and a high-altitude prayer in the Andes. He will visit Peru, where he served as a bishop, and where he has deep personal connections.
Leo expressed his excitement about returning to the continent where he has experienced many significant moments of his life. 'I am looking forward to returning to the continent where I've experienced so many moments of my life,' the pope said in a Vatican statement.
During his visit, Leo will meet with authorities, interfaith leaders, workers, and Catholic communities. He will also lead over 50 events, including open-air masses and meetings with Indigenous peoples, clerical abuse victims, and the elderly, poor, and disabled.
Leo's visit to Cusco, at an altitude of 3,400 meters, will be highly scrutinized. Doctors have cleared him for the trip, but questions remain about his health.
The pope's visit to Peru is particularly emotional, as he first arrived there in 1985 as an Augustinian priest and later led the Diocese of Chiclayo through natural disasters and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Leo will celebrate four Masses during his visit: in Chiclayo, Santa Cruz de Succhabamba, Pucallpa, and at the Las Palmas Air Base in Callao outside of Lima.
The return flight from Lima to Rome covers 6,700 miles, marking the end of the most closely watched trip of Leo's papacy to date.
Leo's visit to Uruguay, Latin America's most secular country, will be welcomed by left-wing President Yamandu Orsi.
The pope's trip is expected to be a significant moment for the Church, especially in Uruguay, where the Catholic share of the population has fallen to 33 percent.
What this adds
Leo's visit to Peru marks an emotional homecoming for the American-born pontiff, who has deep personal connections to the country.
Background
Pope Leo XIV will travel to Uruguay, Argentina, and Peru from November 6 to 17, 2026, despite undergoing lung surgery earlier this month.
Pope Leo XIV will travel to Uruguay, Argentina, and Peru from November 6 to 17, 2026, despite undergoing lung surgery earlier this month.
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.
- Leo's visit to Cusco, at an altitude of 3,400 metres, will be brief – under three hours – but highly scrutinised, amid questions over whether the pontiff has underestimated his cancer, or beaten it with apparent ease.
- “This will be the most closely watched trip of Leo’s papacy to date,” Christopher White of Georgetown University in Washington, author of a book on Leo, told AFP.
- "I am looking forward to returning to the continent where I've experienced so many moments of my life," the pope said in a Vatican statement released ahead of the trip.
- “And if you also allow me a brief word, a greeting to everyone and in particular to my beloved Diocese of Chiclayo, in Peru, where a faithful people has accompanied its bishop, shared its faith and given so much, so much, to continue being a faithful Church of Jesus Christ,” the pope said.
- In the Vatican News documentary on the pope’s life in Peru, “Leon de Peru,” one parishioner, Hector Camacho, recalled visiting the future pope at the parish and noticing that he was sad.
- The Vatican on Monday published the detailed itinerary for Leo’s first visit to Latin America as pope.
What's still developing
- According to the announcement, the pope will begin his journey by departing Rome on Nov. 6 at 7:50 a.m.
- Father David Farfán Guerrero, a friend of the pope, told EWTN News Español, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, that Prevost used to go there to pray before the image of the saint.
- St. Augustine Convent, one of the most significant colonial vestiges in Peru, located in the Zaña district, Chiclayo province. | Credit: Agencia Andina At the Shrine of Our Lady of Peace, Robert Prevost entrusted his episcopal ministry to the Virgin Mary, as noted in a handwritten message in the shrine’s guest book dated Oct. 21, 2015.
- "Our church is poor and small, but free and beautiful," Cardinal Daniel Sturla of Montevideo said at a recent conference hosted by Aid to the Church in Need International ahead of the visit.
- The Vatican confirmed Tuesday that Pope Leo XIV underwent successful surgery to remove the lower lobe of his right lung at Rome's Gemelli Hospital — and that post-surgical biopsies locked in a diagnosis of lung adenocarcinoma, putting the 71-year-old pontiff on a recovery timeline that collides head-on with the most emotionally charged papal trip in years.
- Read more Dardanelle Middle School honor roll Pope Leo XIV blesses faithful during an audience with participants of the Jesus Youth International Conference in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Saturday, Oct.
- Pope Leo told Allen that when the late pontiff served as archbishop of Buenos Aires, he and then-Father Prevost, while he served as prior general, had a slight disagreement.
- Leo is spending the bulk of his visit in Peru, arriving in Lima on Nov. 11 and leaving the afternoon of Nov. 16 after a final Mass in Callao, outside Lima, where he served as a temporary administrator.
- As he showed during his four-nation Africa trip in April, the 71-year-old Leo has no qualms about covering vast distances and working late into the night when he’s on the road.
- In all, he’ll clock just over 31,000 kilometers (19,000 miles) of flight time during the trip, nearly double the 17,000 km (10,000 miles) he traveled in Algeria, Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea.