Pope Leo makes jubilant return to Peru, his ‘homeland’

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LIMA: Pope Leo XIV arrived on Wednesday in Peru, the country he called his “beloved” home, making a nostalgic return to the nation where he spent two ...

LIMA: Pope Leo XIV arrived on Wednesday in Peru, the country he called his “beloved” home, making a nostalgic return to the nation where he spent two decades as a missionary before being elected to lead the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.

The 71-year-old pontiff landed in Lima on the final leg of a demanding three-nation Latin American tour, just weeks after undergoing surgery for lung cancer. “The pope is Peruvian!” shouted some of the estimated three million people who lined the route from the airport.

Speaking to authorities and diplomats shortly after his arrival, Leo described Peru as his “homeland”, saying the years he spent working there and his Peruvian citizenship had made it part of him. He urged the country’s leaders to confront painful chapters of its past with “justice and sensitivity”, touching on deep divisions that still scar national politics.

In the audience was President Keiko Fujimori, whose father Alberto Fujimori led Peru through the turbulent 1990s and a brutal war against the Maoist Shining Path rebels. Some 69,000 people were killed or disappeared in Peru’s internal conflict, and the late former president was jailed for corruption and crimes against humanity.

During his six days in Peru, the Chicago-born pope will travel from the Amazon to the Andes, including Cuzco at more than 3,400 meters, a test of his recovery from surgery. He will also make an emotional return to the northern city of Chiclayo, where he was bishop for a decade. He arrives in a politically divided country grappling with rising crime, living costs and recurring natural disasters, where seven of the last 14 presidents have been jailed or placed under house arrest for corruption or other crimes. The pope said Peruvians should be able to live and work “without fear” and urged authorities to do more to prevent natural disasters.

Earlier on Wednesday, Leo celebrated mass in Lujan, Argentina, before more than three million people, the largest crowd of his 18-month papacy, in a…

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