Peru awaits Pope Leo XIV with open arms: “The Holy Father is coming home!”
Pope’s return to his “beloved diocese” of Chiclayo will be a highlight of the trip, but he will also travel to the Amazon, where he will meet Indigenous, Afro-descendant, and migrant communities.
Pope Leo XIV will arrive in Peru on November 11 for the final stage of his apostolic journey through Latin America, which also includes Uruguay and Argentina.
Peru’s Catholic population is experiencing the visit as a long-awaited homecoming.
“The Holy Father is coming home, and there is no need for us to introduce him to the country, because he knows perfectly well everything that is happening in Peru and in the Peruvian Church,” said Bishop Edinson Farfán of Chiclayo, the Pope’s former diocese, during a recent press conference organized by ACN.
“On the 13th (…) he will visit his beloved Diocese of Chiclayo. We speak of ‘his beloved diocese’ because those were exactly the words he used in his first address: ‘My beloved Diocese of Chiclayo, which has given me so much,’” Bishop Farfán explained.
According to Bishop Farfán, the diocese has around 1.5 million inhabitants, 95% of whom are Catholic.
“You can imagine the tremendous affection and love they have for the Holy Father,” he said. “When he arrives, the first thing he will do is celebrate the Eucharist by the sea. It is estimated that around one and a half million faithful will take part, including many brothers and sisters from Ecuador and the border regions, as well as people coming from all over northern Peru.”
Chiclayo is located in northwestern Peru. The city itself is about eight miles from the Pacific Ocean, but the diocese also encompasses remote mountainous areas that remain, in many respects, mission territory. The Pope wishes to visit these regions as well and will celebrate Mass in Santa Cruz, in the Northern Highlands.
“He wants to be there,” Bishop Farfán explained. “He has visited the Parish of the Immaculate Conception in Santa Cruz, Cajamarca, many times, and returning there will help him remember his missionary experience and some of the difficult moments he had to face. Yet he always went there willing to let himself be evangelized by ordinary people.”
The former Bishop Robert Francis Prevost left Chiclayo for Rome in 2023, to become prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Bishops. Only three years have passed, but several missionaries, members of the Augustinian order like the Holy Father himself and well acquainted with Peru, have told ACN that much has changed.
“I think part of the challenge facing the Church in Peru is the enormous increase in the number of people leaving the mountain regions and moving to the cities,” said Fr. John Lydon, an American Augustinian who travels frequently to the country.
In the more rural areas, he added, “there was a much stronger sense of community and faith.”
As is often the case in such situations, migrant workers face difficult living conditions, long working hours, and precarious housing in makeshift settlements on the hillsides leading towards the desert, places where the Church has no established presence.
“As a result, they have far fewer opportunities to participate in a faith community,” Fr. Lydon explained.
During his stay in Peru, Pope Leo will also have the opportunity to meet and celebrate the faith with members of marginalized communities, including Quechua peoples, Afro-descendant, and migrant communities, as well as Indigenous groups from the Amazon region.
“On the afternoon of November 15, we will experience a historic moment when the Pope visits Pucallpa. It will be the first time a Supreme Pontiff celebrates the Eucharist in the Peruvian Amazon,” Bishop Farfán explained.
As it prepares to welcome Pope Leo with open arms, the Church in Peru expects a message marked by constant appeals for unity and peace.
“His entire message as an Augustinian is rooted in the idea that we must bear witness to communion in the light of the mystery of the Trinity. We also know that he is a providential instrument of peace. Peace is an especially important subject for him.”
ACN supports numerous projects in Peru, including the formation of seminarians and the provision of transport for pastoral work. One of these projects helps fund the maintenance and fuel of a vehicle used by religious sisters who visit 120 rural communities in the Parish of San Juan Bautista in Kañaris, within the Diocese of Chiclayo. The vehicle was a gift from the present Pope Leo when he was still bishop of the diocese, and thanks to ACN’s support for its upkeep, it continues to serve these communities today.
– Filipe d’Avillez
