Pope Leo XIV plans first Latin America tour with emotional Peru return

Rome,UPDATED: Sep 21, 2026 18:30 IST

Pope Leo XIV will make his first visit to Latin America as pope from November 6 to 17, in what will be his longest trip so far. The Vatican published the detailed itinerary on Monday for the visit, which will take him to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru.

The visit will also be a homecoming for the US-born pope, who has Peruvian citizenship and spent two decades in Peru as a priest and bishop. During the trip, he is set to cover just over 31,000 kilometres by air, nearly double the 17,000 kilometres he travelled during his four-nation Africa visit in April to Algeria, Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea.

The trip will begin in Uruguay so that Leo can mark an important Catholic feast day on November 8 linked to the country's patron saint, Our Lady of the Thirty-Three. The small Madonna statue dates back to the 18th century Jesuit missions in the region and is now kept in the city of Florida, where Leo will celebrate Mass at the Shrine.

He will then travel to Argentina, where he will honour the country's patron, Our Lady of Lujan. The Madonna statue in the city of Lujan in Buenos Aires province was especially dear to Pope Francis. Francis, who died in 2025, never returned to his native Argentina after leaving for Rome for the 2013 conclave that elected him pope. He had been a divisive figure at home, both as Jesuit superior and as archbishop of Buenos Aires, and appeared to want to avoid adding to the country's political arguments by denying any ruling party the benefit of a papal visit. Leo, however, appears set to give Argentina's faithful their first papal visit since St John Paul II visited in 1982 and 1987.

In Buenos Aires, Leo will also visit the capital's federal prison, in what may be seen as a reference to Francis' prison ministry, which he first developed as a "slum priest" in the city.

The most significant part of the trip will be Leo's return to Peru, especially to his former diocese of Chiclayo. Before becoming pope, Robert Prevost served as bishop of Chiclayo from 2014 to 2023, until Francis brought him to the Vatican to lead the office for bishops. On the night of his election, Leo had referred in Spanish to his "beloved diocese of Chiclayo" from the balcony of St Peter's Basilica, and praised 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 the visit in Peru. He will arrive in Lima on November 11 and leave on the afternoon of November 16 after a final Mass in Callao, outside Lima, where he had served as a temporary administrator. Between those dates, he will spend time in Chiclayo, including a private dinner with the diocese's priests.

He will also meet popular groups in Cusco to celebrate the city's history. Cusco was the capital of the Inca empire and later an important city under Spanish colonial rule, and remains a major cultural destination with sites including Machu Picchu. On November 15, he will also travel to Pucallpa in Peru's Amazon forest to honour Indigenous peoples and celebrate Mass.

The November journey will take Leo across three South American countries, combining major Catholic feast days, a long-awaited papal visit to Argentina and a deeply personal return to Peru, where he spent many years in ministry.

With PTI Inputs

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