Pope Leo XIV heads to South America on Friday for an emotionally charged reunion with the continent that helped shape his priesthood, three weeks after undergoing lung cancer surgery.
“I won’t be going, as I’m not religious. The Church’s first US-born pope served for almost two decades in Peru as a missionary, forming a deep attachment to the continent. He will be driven along Montevideo’s waterfront promenade in a custom-made popemobile, before meeting left-wing President Yamandu Orsi and receiving the keys to the city. “History’s first Latin American pope, Francis, never returned to his homeland.
Despite undergoing an operation on October 13 to remove a cancerous tumour, doctors have given him the all-clear to travel, and the Vatican said no special medical measures were necessary beyond the standard care on papal trips.
Leo said on Wednesday that he was looking forward to returning to those countries “so dear to me”. The head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics said he hoped the trip would “strengthen faith, renew hope, rekindle the fire of charity” in the countries, which share challenges from rising inequality and violence, to demographic falls and the decline of Catholicism. But it’s great that someone of such importance is coming,” she said. Leo, a Peruvian citizen, now carries forward that mantle and legacy,” said White, author of a book on Pope Leo. The South America trip culminates in Peru, and Leo’s arrival there on Wednesday will be “a moment full of symbolism and emotion”, he said.
