MEXICO CITY — While delivering his first speech as pope last year from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, Leo XIV paused, and then briefly switched from Italian to Spanish.
“A greeting to all,” he said, smiling. “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. He served from 2015 until 2023 as diocesan bishop of Chiclayo, a small city near the Pacific coast.
The pontiff returned to Peru this week for the final leg of a celebratory but politically charged Latin America tour, where Catholicism is in decline, eclipsed by the rise of evangelical Christian churches, and a new wave of right-wing politicians have come to power on platforms that often clash with Leo’s teachings.
The visit also comes just weeks after Leo, who was diagnosed with cancer, had surgery to remove a tumor on his lung.
In Argentina, Leo delivered a veiled critique of libertarian President Javier Milei’s austerity campaign, insisting that economies must serve the most vulnerable.
In Buenos Aires, Leo visited a facility that serves more than 400 people with disabilities, a symbolic choice because Milei’s government has withheld funding for disability care. “A nation’s progress,” Leo said, “is also measured by how it welcomes all people with disabilities and particular needs.”
And in Peru, the Pope urged justice as the country confronts its turbulent past, remarks that seemed to reference the controversial legacy of authoritarian leader Alberto Fujimori, the father of newly elected President Keiko Fujimori.
Leo has criticized the human rights violations documented under the elder Fujimori’s reign and led pro-democracy actions while living in Peru.
Leo, who while bishop created a housing project for Venezuelan migrants and helped many attain legal status, is also at odds with Keiko Fujimori’s immigration stance, including her promise to expel the more than 1 million people who fled political and economic crises in Venezuela and lack legal status in Peru.
But in Lima, where 3 million people lined the streets to greet the pontiff as he cruised by in the popemobile, tensions were mostly overshadowed by the elation of the crowds, who greeted him with chants of “Leo!”
Fujimori praised the pontiff during an appearance with him at the city’s Gran Teatro Nacional, adding that “to move forward, Peru needs to reconcile.”
Leo spent most of his speech fondly recalling his time in Peru, including the friendships he made there and his love of ceviche, the national dish.
“This return visit holds a very special meaning for me,” the pope said. “I am returning to my homeland.”
Though Catholics still make up the largest religious group in Latin America, their numbers have been declining in recent years, with many joining evangelical churches. In Peru, for example, the number of adults who identify as Catholic dropped from 76% in 2013 to 67% this year.
That’s according to a recent survey of six Latin American countries by the Pew Research Center Survey. In Argentina, the Catholic presence dropped from 71% to 56%, the survey found, while Mexico slipped from 81% to 71%.
Leo’s visit is seen as an effort to bolster the faith in the region. The trip began in Uruguay, which is considered Latin America’s most secular country.
On Friday, Leo will travel north to Chiclayo, celebrating mass with a community that remembers him as an activist priest who was particularly close to his parishioners.
“He was so compassionate,” said Fabiola Risco Pacheco, a longtime church volunteer in Chiclayo. “During the rainy season, he would join in and help with flooding. He’d be there in his boots. To get to parts of the highlands where vehicles can’t reach, he would walk or ride a donkey.”
Risco got to know Leo personally, from his taste for ceviche to his propensity to cry alongside parishioners who were going through hard times.
Her son, like many youngsters here, was confirmed by Leo.
After he was elected pope, she said, “no one could believe it. Everyone started posting their confirmation photos on social media.”
As the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged Peru, killing hundreds of thousands of people, the man then known fondly as Padre Robert led an emergency campaign to secure medical oxygen for his community.
Leo was seen as a “pastor who walked with his people,” Archbishop Paolo Rocco Gualtieri told the Vatican News.
“They feel very close to him,” he said. “He truly gave his heart to Peru.”
In recent weeks, the city has been preparing to host their famous former resident and the tens of thousands of people who are expected to travel there to see him.
They have painted murals and posters to welcome the Pope, and hawk T-shirts plastered with his face. The city’s main cathedral created a life-size cutout of the pontiff that visitors can pose with.
Father Juan Mechán Sánchez, the parochial vicar at Santa María Cathedral, said he had been sleeping only a few hours each night in preparation for the pope.
The pope’s visit comes as evangelical Christianity rapidly gains ground across Latin America. Mechán said he hoped the visit would spur a renewal of Catholic faith.
Leo, he said, had made “an open, welcoming church for everyone.”
“I hope people see his return as an opportunity to renew their faith and their commitment to the Church and to God.”
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