ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV will follow in his own missionary footsteps when he returns to Peru in November as part of his longest journey yet, a trip that will also take him to Uruguay and Argentina, where his Argentine predecessor, Pope Francis, never returned.
The Vatican on Monday released the detailed itinerary for Leo’s first visit to Latin America as pope. The Nov. 6-17 trip will be a homecoming for the U.S.-born pontiff, who also holds Peruvian citizenship and spent two decades there serving as a priest and bishop.
During his four-country trip to Africa in April, the 71-year-old pope demonstrated no hesitation about covering long distances and working late into the night while traveling. Leo is expected to accumulate just over 31,000 kilometers (19,000 miles) of flight time on this journey, nearly double the 17,000 kilometers (10,000 miles) logged during his trip to Algeria, Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea.
The journey begins in Uruguay, positioning Leo to mark an important Catholic feast day on Nov. 8 honoring the country’s patron saint, Our Lady of the Thirty-Three. The small statue of the Madonna dates to the 18th-century Jesuit missions in the region and is now housed in Florida, where Leo will celebrate Mass at the National Shrine.
Leo will also honor Argentina’s patron, Our Lady of Lujan, during the trip’s second Argentine leg. The statue, housed in Lujan in Buenos Aires province, was especially dear to Francis.
Francis, who died in 2025, surprised both supporters and critics by never returning to his native Argentina after leaving for Rome to participate in the 2013 conclave that elected him pope.
He had been a controversial figure in Argentina, both as a Jesuit superior and archbishop of Buenos Aires. He apparently sought to avoid intensifying the country’s political divisions or allowing whichever party held power to claim the benefits of a papal visit.
Leo, however, appears determined to make Argentina the site of its first papal visit since St. John Paul II traveled there in 1982 and 1987.
In Buenos Aires, Leo will visit a federal prison, a gesture echoing Francis’s longstanding commitment to prison ministry, which he began during his years as a priest in Buenos Aires.
The centerpiece of Leo’s journey will be his return to Peru, particularly his former diocese of Chiclayo. Before becoming pope, Robert Prevost served as bishop of Chiclayo from 2014 to 2023, when Francis brought him to the Vatican to lead the office for bishops.
On the night of his election, Leo praised his “beloved diocese of Chiclayo” in Spanish from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica. He commended its faithful for having “walked alongside their bishop, shared their faith, and given so much to continue being a faithful Church of Jesus Christ.”
Leo will spend most of his time in Peru, arriving in Lima on Nov. 11 and departing the afternoon of Nov. 16 after a final Mass in Callao, outside Lima, where he once served as a temporary administrator. His itinerary also includes time in Chiclayo and a special dinner with the diocese’s priests.
In Cusco, in the Peruvian Andes, he will meet with popular groups to celebrate the city’s rich heritage. Cusco was the capital of the Inca Empire, a major center during Spanish colonial rule and today one of Latin America’s most important cultural destinations, home to ruins such as Machu Picchu.
On Nov. 15, Leo will also pay tribute to Peru’s Indigenous peoples by traveling to Pucallpa in the country’s Amazonian forest to celebrate Mass.