FACTS
Pope Leo XIV returned on Friday, Nov. 13, to Chiclayo, Peru, the northern city where he served as bishop before he was called to Rome, and celebrated an outdoor Chiclayo Mass in a field outside the city. The Vatican estimated that 1 million people lined his motorcade route and about 500,000 attended the Mass, the Associated Press reported. The visit is part of a three-country trip to South America that also took him to Uruguay and Argentina.
Crowds at the Chiclayo Mass
The pope flew into Chiclayo’s airport and went directly to the Mass site, riding through the crowd in his popemobile under a sun that pushed temperatures to 31 degrees Celsius (88 degrees Fahrenheit), the Associated Press reported. Al Jazeera and EWTN News identified the site as the Pampas de Pimentel, a park outside the city.
Vatican News reported the same figures: 1 million people in the city’s streets and about 500,000 at the Mass. Al Jazeera reported that about 12 million people have attended public events across the trip so far.
What Pope Leo said
“What a joy it is to return to Chiclayo!” the pope said at the start of his homily, according to the AP. “It is a blessing for me to be with you once again,” he said, thanking the faithful for their prayers during his recent hospitalization. He said that “with God’s help, I am overcoming” his health problems, the AP reported.
“As I look at your faces, a prayer of thanksgiving to the Lord arises in my heart,” he said, according to Al Jazeera.
In the homily, the pope said that “every Christian is a missionary to the extent that he or she has encountered the love of God in Christ Jesus,” according to Vatican News. He said that “mission cannot be improvised” and that “Evangelization, therefore, does not mean imposing doctrines or trusting efficient strategies.” He also said, “Without truth, love degenerates into mere sentimentality.”
“Commit yourselves to sharing the living hope that is Jesus Christ,” he told the crowd, EWTN News reported.
The pope’s ties to Chiclayo
Leo, born Robert Prevost in Chicago, spent about two decades in Peru as a missionary priest and bishop, and is known there as “Padre Roberto,” the AP reported. He spent almost eight years in Chiclayo, first as apostolic administrator and then as bishop, before Pope Francis called him to Rome in 2023 to lead the Vatican office that oversees bishops, according to Vatican News and the AP. Al Jazeera reported that he holds Peruvian citizenship.
He was elected pope on May 8, 2025, and is 71, according to the AP.
Health before the trip
The pope had surgery for lung cancer in October, one month before the Chiclayo visit, which raised concerns the trip might be called off, Al Jazeera reported. Doctors said the cancer was localized, had not spread and would not require further treatment, according to Al Jazeera. The AP reported that he joked with Peruvian bishops about people who doubted he would make the trip.
The South America trip itinerary
The pope began the trip in Uruguay on Nov. 6 and celebrated Mass in Montevideo on Nov. 8 before flying to Argentina, according to EWTN News. In Argentina he visited Buenos Aires, Cordoba and Lujan, where he celebrated Mass on Nov. 11, then left for Peru the same day.
In Lima, he sang Peru’s national anthem at the presidential palace on Wednesday, Nov. 11, and about 60,000 young people sang for him at a stadium on Thursday night, the AP reported. EWTN News reported that his Lima schedule on Nov. 12 included meetings with bishops, midday prayer at the cathedral and a gathering in the Plaza Mayor.
After the Mass in Chiclayo, the pope was scheduled to meet local clergy and seminarians and to speak at Santo Toribio de Mogrovejo Catholic University, where he served as chancellor while bishop, the AP reported. EWTN News reported that he made a private visit to a chapel dedicated to St. Oscar Romero. Al Jazeera reported that the trip runs from Nov. 6 to Nov. 17 and that Peru is the final country on his schedule.
More coverage is in the Stay Current News World section.
Photo: File photo of Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican, not taken in Peru. Edgar Beltrán / The Pillar / Wikimedia Commons.jpg), CC BY-SA 4.0.
