Pope Leo welcomed by millions in his second ‘homeland’ of Peru

Résumé détaillé

On his Latin America tour, the pontiff is expected to spend 3 days in Chiclayo, where ​he was bishop from 2015-2023.

Pope Leo XIV has been welcomed by a few million people upon his arrival in Peru, his adopted homeland, for the final leg of a three-nation Latin American tour, just weeks after undergoing surgery for lung cancer.

People waving flags and wearing pope-themed shirts filled the main plaza in Lima and erupted into loud cheers as a big screen showed the plane touching down on Wednesday local time. Some held signs that read, “Welcome home”.

A Vatican statement said three million people greeted the pontiff in Lima, setting another record for the biggest crowd of his papacy after an estimated 2.5 million people attended an outdoor Mass in Buenos Aires earlier this week.

The 71-year-old travelled to Uruguay and Argentina before heading to Peru.

The pope was born in Chicago, the United States, but served in Peru as a missionary priest and bishop for two decades and obtained citizenship there, before being tapped to lead the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.

“Today, I understand how much of this land remains with me and how much of my own story also belongs to you,” he said at Lima’s Gran Teatro Nacional. “I can tell you, with deep gratitude, that I am returning to my homeland.”

Peru prepared for the homecoming by erecting a 14-metre (46ft) statue of Pope Leo with outstretched arms, towering over a seaside park in Callao. Merchants in Lima were selling pope-themed shirts and souvenirs.

The pontiff is scheduled to spend three days in the northern city of Chiclayo, where he was bishop from 2015 to 2023.

In a closely watched speech to President Keiko Fujimori, whose father Alberto Fujimori led Peru through the turbulent 1990s and a brutal war against Maoist Shining Path rebels, Pope Leo urged the president to build confidence among her people after her narrow election victory earlier this year.

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