Home · Faith · Nov 13 archive

Pope Leo Returns to Chiclayo, Peru, for Joyful Mass

9:43 PM ETConfirmedShare via:          

Faith Desk

In Short: Pope Leo returned to Chiclayo, Peru, for a Mass attended by about 500,000 people.

Pope Leo LIVE: Peru Erupts In Joy As Devotees Welcome Him Back To Chiclayo. The Sunday Guardian

Pope Leo returned to Chiclayo, Peru, for a Mass attended by about 500,000 people, expressing joy at being back in the city where he served as bishop for eight years.

In his homily, Pope Leo said, 'What a joy it is to return to Chiclayo. It is a blessing for me to be with you once again.' He also thanked the Lord for the blessings of faith, life, and respect for human dignity.

The Mass took place on a desert plain called the Pampas de Pimentel in the region of Lambayeque, near Chiclayo. It was a heartfelt and vulnerable disclosure from the pope, exactly one month after his lung cancer surgery.

Pope Leo, then known as Robert Prevost, served as bishop of Chiclayo from 2015 to 2023. He is remembered for his compassionate work, including his efforts during devastating floods and his leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic.

During his time as bishop, Pope Leo sought to build a basilica at the site of a Eucharistic miracle and worked closely with Caritas Chiclayo to raise funds for oxygen plants.

Fabiola Risco Pacheco, a longtime church volunteer in Chiclayo, said, 'He was so compassionate.'

Pope Leo emphasized the importance of recognizing the Lord's voice and participating in the mission of the Church, inviting all the faithful to share the love of God and continue Jesus' mission.

The pope also mentioned his dream of a new chapel dedicated to Saint Óscar Romero and expressed gratitude for the support he received after his surgery.

The occasion brings together two significant aspects of Pope Leo’s life: his Augustinian spirituality and his service to the community of Chiclayo.

Pope Leo's return to Chiclayo was highly anticipated, with people walking past murals and banners dedicated to him, and a mototaxi pass driving past a banner at Pimentel beach.

What this adds

Background

What's confirmed

• “What a joy it is to return to Chiclayo. It is a blessing for me to be with you once again,” Pope Leo said in his homily.

What's still developing

• “As I look at your faces, a prayer of thanksgiving to the Lord arises in my heart for the blessing you have been and continue to be in my life,” Pope Leo said.
• It was a heartfelt and vulnerable disclosure from the pope exactly one month after his lung cancer surgery in which the lower lobe of his right lung was removed a little more than three weeks before the longest international trip of his pontificate.
• “I give thanks to the Lord for so many blessings: for faith, for life, and for respect for the human dignity of every person,” the Pope told the crowd outside the Nunciature, as he prayed that God may bless them all.
• The Pope left shortly afterwards to board a flight to his next destination: the northwestern city of Chiclayo, where he was bishop from 2015 to 2023, before being appointed as Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops.
• “And in particular to my dear Diocese of Chiclayo, in Peru.” Before he was elevated to the highest earthly authority in the Catholic Church, Robert Francis Prevost, a 71-year-old Chicago native, spent two decades as a priest and bishop in Peru, where he mastered Spanish and became a naturalized citizen.
• “Learning to recognize the Lordʼs voice is essential,” the pope told some 60,000 young people at a Lima stadium vigil, pointing to Christʼs passion as the model.
• The Holy Father focused his remarks on how Jesus came to bring us salvation and how we are called to share God's love and participate in His mission. While "Jesus Christ came to bring us salvation, and He gave His life, even dying on the Cross, so that we might attain salvation and eternal life," Pope Leo said, "He invites us all to enter into the experience of being part of His Church, to be brothers and sisters, all united in the Church, in order to continue the mission that Jesus began, but which He wants us to carry on."
• He said that the Lord calls all of us who are baptized, each according to our own vocation—bishops, priests, consecrated men and women, and lay faithful alike—to participate together in the communion that is the Church. Accordingly, Pope Leo said that all the faithful are called "to proclaim the Good News, to share our faith, and to keep passing it on to one another, from generation to generation, among neighbors and family members; in other words, to share the love of God, this wonderful news that Jesus always walks with us."
• He first arrived in Peru in 1985 as an Augustinian priest, later leading the Diocese of Chiclayo through devastating natural disasters and securing life-saving oxygen during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• His homecoming in Peru and to the city of Chiclayo in particular, has been highly anticipated since he name-dropped his former diocese from the balcony of St.
• Now, three days before Leo XIV returns to the city that knew him first, the earthwork goes down in Chiclayo.
• The other comes from Father Cesar, a Chiclayo priest who served alongside the future Leo XIV during his years in the diocese and is now preparing something for his old friend — the nature of which the film will reveal.

Sources

• OSV Newslink
• The New York Timeslink
• Los Angeles Timeslink
• Ewtnnewslink
• Cruxnowlink
• Vaticannewslink
• Catholicweeklylink
• Ncronlinelink
• Heraldbulletinlink
• Warpbeatlink
• Aleteialink
• Ksllink
• Ewtnvaticanlink
• WarpBeat — background on Pope Leo XIV Returns to Chiclayo, Peru link
• WarpBeat — background on Pope Leo XIV Returns to Chiclayo, Peru link
• The Sunday Guardian — video link
• ABC News — video link
• Associated Press — video link
• WPLG Local 10 — video link