Determined Pope travels to Latin America after surgery

Resumen detallado

Despite health concerns following lung surgery, Pope Leo went ahead with a planned trip to Latin America where he spent two decades as a missionary priest and a bishop, writes…

At the end of the October, the Vatican confirmed that Pope Leo XIV's apostolic trip to Latin America would proceed on 6 November, according to a previously published programme.

The confirmation came just 13 days after the pope underwent surgery at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital to remove a malignant tumour from his right lung.

There were concerns about possible health challenges resulting from changing altitudes in Uruguay, Argentina and Peru, but doctors gave him the green light to travel.

Rather than postponing the trip, the Pope was reportedly determined to keep his commitment and return to the continent where he spent two decades as a missionary priest and a bishop.

Robert Prevost first went to Peru as an Augustinian missionary in 1985 where he spent almost half of his priestly life before Pope Francis called him to Rome in 2023 to head the Vatican’s Dicastery for Bishops.

Latin America is home to around 40% of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics, but the Catholic proportion of the region's population has shrunk in recent years.

The first stop of Pope Leo's trip was to the region's most secular nation Uruguay; marking the first papal visit in 38 years.

Although only about a third of Uruguayans identify as Catholic, tickets for papal events sold out rapidly.

In recent years, Uruguay has been an international transit and export hub for cocaine heading to Europe and Africa and has a high suicide rate which the Pope linked to social isolation.

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