LIMA, Peru (AP) — Pope Leo XIV declared Peru his “homeland” on Wednesday as he arrived in Lima at the start of his historic visit, returning to the place that taught him how to be a pastor and where a nationwide party erupted to welcome the beloved “Padre Robert” home.
Leo seemed genuinely moved as he emerged from his Aerolineas Argentinas charter plane, smiling broadly at nearly every turn of his first moments on Peruvian soil. The Vatican estimated that some 3 million people lined Leo’s kilometers-long (miles-long) motorcade route into town, waving Peruvian and Holy See flags.
Some in the roaring crowds broke through the tight security to chase behind the car that transported him to the presidential palace for a meeting with Peruvian President Keiko Fujimori. During the formal welcome ceremony in the palace courtyard, the Chicago-born Leo sang the Peruvian national anthem alongside Fujimori and a children’s choir.
In his first remarks to Fujimori and government officials, 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 ceremony featured Indigenous Quechua music and a performance of the traditional Marinera dance from the northern coast of Peru and specifically Chiclayo, his former diocese. “The pope is Peruvian!” the crowd chanted as he arrived.
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 here as a missionary priest and later bishop. He has said it was here that he learned “what it means to be a shepherd.”
“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.
Elation over the pope’s return felt across Peru
In preparation for the pope’s visit, a huge 46-foot (14-meter) statue of the pontiff was unveiled in the port of El Callao. Baristas in Lima, the capital, were offering 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.
Popemania also hit Chiclayo, where Leo arrives on Friday. Leo is painted in colorful murals, emblazoned on T-shirts, baseball hats and even bobblehead dolls.
Over the coming days, Leo will 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 knows his adopted country so well, his speeches will be closely watched, especially one he’ll deliver from the square in front of Lima’s cathedral Thursday “on the challenges and hopes for the future of the Peruvian people.”
Peru hit by poverty and political instability
Peru, a nation of 34 million people, is 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% of the Peruvian population was living in monetary poverty.
“A small elite has GDP levels comparable to some U.S. states,” Morello said, adding that while the macroeconomy “is doing well, most Peruvians live in structural poverty and economic insecurity.”
While the country is no longer experiencing the terror of the Shining Path rebel movement of the 1980s and 1990s, when Leo was a young Augustinian missionary, it is 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.
Honoring Indigenous peoples in the Amazon and threats of flooding
The pope will 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, are 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 will also meet with popular groups of 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 will 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.
Calls for answers to Peru’s problems
The conservative Fujimori came to power in July on promises of restoring order to a nation plagued by extortion and homicide, which has nearly doubled, reaching 10.7 per 100,000 inhabitants, up from a pandemic low of 5.8 five years ago.
Alonso Cárdenas, a political science professor at the Antonio Ruiz de Montoya University, said Peruvians will welcome the pope at a time when many feel disappointed with authorities following a decade of political instability that has seen a revolving door of nine presidents since July 2016. Many Peruvians are also battered by rising insecurity and the increasing cost of food.
“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 enjoys a level of credibility that surpasses any other Peruvian institution.
Huge crowds are expected to turn out to welcome Leo home, even though Peru has seen Catholicism fall in recent years. According to the Pew Research Center, the Catholic population was at 76% in 2013-2014, but now stands at around 67%.
That stands in line with trends around the world where many continue to join the growing ranks of the religiously unaffiliated, or “nones.” But Lecaros says this doesn’t mean Peruvians have lost their faith, and most still consider 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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