Three Million People Greet Pope Leo XIV in Peru

Over three million Catholic faithful received Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday as he arrived in Peru, the nation where the Pope, as Robert Prevost, served first as missionary and then as a bishop for decades.

The earthly head of the Catholic Church landed in Lima on Wednesday to begin the final leg of his first Apostolic Journey throughout Latin America that also saw him visit Argentina and Uruguay.

The pontiff’s visit to Peru was highly anticipated by the local faithful, as the American-born Pope considers himself an honorary Peruvian and holds dual Peruvian citizenship. Pope Leo has never been shy about expressing his fondness for Peru, which he affectionately refers to as his “second homeland.”

Pope Leo’s ongoing five-day visit to Peru has been widely described as a “homecoming” for the head of the Catholic Church.

The Pope arrived in Lima’s Callao Air Base around 5:00 p.m. (local time) and was received by President Keiko Fujimori and other government officials. Vatican News detailed that the Pope briefly stopped to greet the crowd of jubilant Faithful that awaited his arrival at the runway before holding a private meeting with President Fujimori.

Pope Leo boarded a “Popemobile” and travelled some 20 kilometers towards Lima’s Plaza de Armas main square as a record-breaking three million people awaited his arrival along the way. Infobae reported that entire families, young men and women, children, elderly, and religious delegations had begun gathering in the streets of Lima during the early morning hours of Wednesday to secure a good spot to wait for the Pope to pass through.

Speaking alongside President Fujimori at Lima’s National Grand Theater, Pope Leo said that for years he shared the lives of the people from the Diocese of Chiclayo long before he became its head. He recounted obtaining Peruvian citizenship in 2015, establishing a link with the people of the country and its five centuries’ worth of Catholic history.

“I return as the Successor of Peter, called to serve the universal Church. In light of this responsibility, I recognize in those years a part of the journey through which the Lord formed me as a shepherd,” the Pope said.

“If I were granted the chance to relive those years, I would do so with joy, embracing both their happy moments and their difficulties. That is why I can tell you, with deep gratitude, that I am also returning to my homeland,” he said.

As part of the Pope’s Apostolic Journey agenda, he held a meeting with Peru’s bishops on Thursday morning and presided over a midday prayer in Lima’s main Cathedral before participating in a meeting to address the challenges and hopes of the Peruvian people right outside the Cathedral.

The Peruvian newspaper La República detailed that the city of Lima honored the Pope by awarding him the keys to the city and a jersey of the Peruvian national soccer team on Thursday morning.

During a tour through the center of Lima, the Pope made a brief stop at the statue of the the Lord of Miracles at the Nazarenas, also known as the Christ of Miracles, to briefly pray before the statue of the most venerated image of Jesus Christ in Peru, with a history of faith and devotion that traces its roots back to the mid 1700s.

In Chiclayo, the town where Robert Prevost had served as Bishop, Radio Programas del Peru detailed that the local Faithful celebrated the arrival of the Pope with songs, dances, and the ringing of the churches’ bells during the evening hours of Wednesday. For weeks, Chiclayo has extensively carried out preparations for receiving Pope Leo in what has been described as the biggest single tourism event in the town’s history.

Per the Vatican’s official agenda, Pope Leo is expected to visit Chiclayo between Friday, November 13, and Saturday, November 14. The Pope will depart the Chiclayo Air Base toward Cusco on Sunday, November 15, before returning to Lima later that day. He will conclude his journey and return to Rome on Monday, November 16.

Earlier this week, a large statue of Pope Leo was completed at the Peruvian town of Callao, the 46-foot-tall structure is now the largest statue in the country, and the tallest statue of Pope Leo XIV in the world.