Pope Leo arrived in Peru on Wednesday for an emotional homecoming, the first Peruvian citizen to lead the Catholic Church, after wrapping up a visit to Argentina that drew a record six million people over three days.
Smiling as he stepped off the plane in the port city of Callao, the pope was greeted by children holding flowers and singing. President Keiko Fujimori welcomed him on the tarmac as crowds pressed against the fencing around the runway, taking pictures on their phones. Some children wore shirts reading: “The Pope returns home.”
Peru is the final and most personal stop on Leo’s 12-day, three-nation tour of South America, which began in Uruguay last week. Born in Chicago, Leo holds dual U.S. and Peruvian citizenship.
He spent about 20 years in Peru as a missionary and later served as bishop of the northern city of Chiclayo, before being elected pope last year.
His visit, which runs until 17 November, includes stops in Lima, Chiclayo, Cusco and Pucallpa. He is expected to spend three days in Chiclayo, where he is likely to see old friends.
Peru has prepared for the visit with fervour. A 14-metre statue of Leo with outstretched arms towers over a seaside park in Callao. Merchants in Lima are selling pope-themed shirts and souvenirs, and inmates at the country’s largest women’s prison have stitched velvet dolls bearing his likeness.
In Lima’s main square, crowds waving flags erupted into cheers as a big screen showed the pope’s plane touching down.
“Since people found out the pope had Peruvian nationality, they identified with him much more,” said Camila Cerazo, 27, who came with her toddler and family.
From the airport, Leo was due to travel to the presidential palace in Lima to meet Fujimori, who took office this year after an election marred by fraud accusations and vote-counting delays.
The visit will test how far the pope is willing to engage with the politics of his adopted country. Fujimori is the daughter of former President Alberto Fujimori, who governed from 1990 to 2000 and was later jailed for human rights abuses. He died in 2024.
When Alberto Fujimori was pardoned in 2017, Leo, then Bishop Robert Prevost, criticised the decision. He said the former president should personally seek forgiveness from his victims if Peru was to achieve genuine reconciliation.
Keiko Fujimori drew heavily on her father’s legacy during her campaign, promising tough security measures to tackle rising crime.
“There’s no other country where the pope is as attuned to the domestic politics,” said Martin Cassinelli, an analyst at the Atlantic Council.
Leo ended his visit to Argentina earlier on Wednesday with a Mass for two million people outside the shrine of Our Lady of Luján, the country’s most important Catholic site.
It was his third straight day drawing crowds of at least a million. A Mass in Buenos Aires on Monday drew 2.5 million people, the largest single event of his 18-month papacy.
He also visited one of Argentina’s largest prisons, where he hugged inmates and urged guards to treat detainees humanely.
President Javier Milei, a fierce critic of Leo’s predecessor Francis, was visibly emotional as he bade the pope farewell.
The tour, the most intense overseas trip by a pope in decades, comes less than a month after Leo had surgery on 13 October to remove part of his right lung, following a diagnosis of lung adenocarcinoma.
His doctors said the operation was successful and that he would not need further treatment.
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