Pope Leo XIV Returns to Peru for a Solemn Homecoming

LIMA, Peru — Pope Leo XIV declared Peru his “homeland” on Wednesday as he arrived in Lima at the start of a historic visit, returning to the place that taught him how to be a pastor and where a nationwide celebration erupted in welcome of the beloved “Padre Robert” home.

Leo appeared moved as he emerged from the Aerolineas Argentinas charter plane, smiling broadly at nearly every turn during his first moments on Peruvian soil. The Vatican estimated that about three million people lined the long motorcade route into the capital, waving Peruvian and Holy See flags.

Some in the enthusiastic crowds broke through tight security to trail the vehicle that transported him to the presidential palace, where Leo met privately with Peruvian President Keiko Fujimori. During the formal welcome ceremony in the palace courtyard, he sang the Peruvian national anthem alongside Fujimori and a children’s choir.

In his first remarks to Fujimori and government officials, the Chicago-born Leo said the Peruvian citizenship he acquired in 2015 cemented a bond that began long before, crediting Peruvians with having formed him as a pastor by sharing their lives, joys and struggles with him.

“Today I understand how much of this land remains with me and how much of my own story also belongs to you,” he said.

“That is why I can tell you, with deep gratitude, that I am also returning to my homeland,” he said to applause.

The visit to Peru marked the final leg of Leo’s three-nation South America tour and its emotional highlight, given the more than two decades that the former Robert Prevost spent in Peru as a missionary priest and later bishop. He has said it was there that he learned “what it means to be a shepherd.” As a dual citizen of the United States and Peru, he is the first pope from each country.

“We love him so much because he’s worked here, he knows our sufferings, he knows it all,” said 85-year-old Evelina Cruz, who held a pope plush doll made by her niece as she waited for Leo to arrive.

In preparation for the pope’s visit, a huge 46-foot statue of the pontiff was unveiled in the port of El Callao. Baristas in Lima, the capital, offered cappuccinos decorated with the image of the pope.

“My heart is so excited that it makes me want to cry with joy,” said Zuly Castillo, who served as Leo’s secretary when he was bishop of the northern city of Chiclayo near the Pacific Coast.

Gustavo Morello, an associate professor of sociology at Boston College and the author of “Lived Religion in Latin America,” said the trip was a “return to his origins, without any doubt.”

“Peru is the crown of the trip, the homecoming of the first Peruvian pope, no matter where he was born,” he said.

With hands raised and voices lifted in song, hundreds awaited the pope’s arrival in Lima in front of the presidential palace. “Long live Christ!” the crowd sang, following a Catholic choir on the stage.

Leo was also to arrive in Chiclayo on Friday, where he was painted in colorful murals, emblazoned on T-shirts, baseball hats and even bobblehead dolls.

Over the coming days, Leo would celebrate Mass in all his old stomping grounds, including at the nearby sanctuary of St. Turibius of Mogrovejo in Zaña, a city that is a hub of Afro-Peruvian culture and where the pope often visited to pray to the saint of his devotion.

Since Leo knew his adopted country so well, his speeches would be closely watched, especially the one he would deliver from the square in front of Lima’s cathedral Thursday “on the challenges and hopes for the future of the Peruvian people.”

Peru, a nation of 34 million people, was overwhelmed by challenges, among them the looming arrival of nature’s chaotic climatic agent El Niño, violent crime and income inequality. In 2025, 25.7 percent of the Peruvian population was living in monetary poverty.

“A small elite has GDP levels comparable to some US states,” Morello said, adding that while the macroeconomy “is doing well, most Peruvians live in structural poverty and economic insecurity.”

While the country was no longer experiencing the terror of the Shining Path rebel movement of the 1980s and 1990s, when Leo was a young Augustinian missionary, it was undergoing a wave of violence and insecurity.

“His return, now as pope, inspires great hope among a large segment of Peruvian society that still perceives and feels the abandonment of the state,” said Rolando Pérez, a professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru.

“Deeply etched in the public consciousness is the image of a shepherd who stood by the people, helping to bring into the public agenda their demands and their cry for justice,” he said.

The pope would honor Peru’s Indigenous peoples by traveling to Pucallpa, in Peru’s Amazon, to celebrate Mass. Illegal gold mining and the cultivation of coca leaves, the raw material used to produce cocaine, were affecting Peru’s Indigenous peoples.

“The Amazon is a place where critical issues affecting development — such as the environmental crisis, the exclusion of Indigenous peoples, various forms of violence, and extreme poverty — all intersect,” said Pérez.

Leo would also meet with popular groups of the faithful and representatives of local traditions in Cusco — the capital of the Inca empire, an important city of Spanish colonial rule and an important cultural destination, including the nearby ruins at Machu Picchu.

The pope would celebrate Mass in Cusco’s main square, where in 1781 the Indigenous hero Túpac Amaru II was killed following the most significant rebellion against the Spanish during the colonial era.

The conservative Fujimori came to power in July on promises of restoring order to a nation plagued by extortion and homicide, which had nearly doubled, reaching 10.7 per 100,000 inhabitants — up from 5.8 five years ago.

Alonso Cárdenas, a political science professor at the Antonio Ruiz de Montoya University, said Peruvians would welcome the pope at a time when many felt disappointed with authorities following a decade of political instability that had seen a revolving door of nine presidents since July 2016. Many Peruvians were also battered by rising insecurity and the increasing cost of food.

“There’s no sign of a reaction, no strategy,” from Fujimori’s government, he said.

As a result, many hoped for a message from Leo that would prompt a response from those in power.

“There’s a profound sense of weariness regarding politics and corruption,” said Véronique Lecaros, head of the department of theology at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru.

In contrast, she said the Catholic Church enjoyed a level of credibility that surpassed any other Peruvian institution.

Huge crowds were expected to turn out to welcome Leo home, even though Peru had seen Catholicism fall in recent years. According to the Pew Research Center, the Catholic population was at 76 percent in 2013-2014, but now stood at around 67 percent.

That stood in line with trends around the world where many continued to join the growing ranks of the religiously unaffiliated, or “nones.” But Lecaros said this did not mean Peruvians had lost their faith, and most still considered themselves to be religious.

“They’ll listen to the pope, and some inspired by his example will renew their interest in the church,” she said. “In the end though, it will depend on how Catholic lay and clerical leaders choose to behave.”

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