Pope Leo XIV returned on Friday to Chiclayo, the Peruvian diocese he led as bishop for eight years, in an emotional homecoming that drew hundreds of thousands of people. The Pope Leo Chiclayo visit was the highlight of his 12-day tour of South America, and crowds greeted the pope as he arrived in the city he once called home.
The pope celebrated Mass on Friday morning at the Pampas de Pimentel, a large open field outside the city. The Vatican estimated that about 500,000 people attended the Pope Leo Chiclayo Mass, while another million lined the route of his motorcade. “What a joy it is to return to Chiclayo,” Leo said at the start of his homily. “It is a blessing for me to be with you once again.”
Leo, who was born Robert Francis Prevost in Chicago, spent about two decades in Peru as a missionary priest and bishop. He served as bishop of Chiclayo from 2015 to 2023 and holds Peruvian citizenship. In his first words as pope, he gave a special greeting in Spanish to his “beloved Diocese of Chiclayo” from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica.
Pope Leo Chiclayo Mass draws hundreds of thousands
The flight carrying the pope for the Pope Leo Chiclayo visit touched down at the Chiclayo Air Base just after 9 a.m. local time after a 90-minute flight from Lima. On the side of the aircraft was the message that has followed Leo across Peru: “#LeonXIVvuelaaCasa,” or “Leon XIV flies home.”
Chiclayo, a coastal city of about 620,000 people in northern Peru, is the country’s fourth-largest city. Church organizers said as many as a million people could turn out for the Pope Leo Chiclayo Mass. The crowd chanted “El Papa es Chiclayano,” meaning “the pope is Chiclayan.”
“People aren’t saying: ‘The pope is Peruvian.’ They’re saying, ‘the pope is Chiclayano!'” said the Rev. Jasson Sempertegui, who was Leo’s secretary when he led the diocese. “In Chiclayo we like to say: ‘The pope is returning home.'”
The Mass was held on a massive field outside Chiclayo, where church organizers had prepared for a crowd of up to a million people. The Pampas de Pimentel is a desert park just outside the city, and the morning Mass was the first big public event of the Pope Leo Chiclayo visit. The Associated Press described the return as the emotional high point of the pope’s South America tour.
A homecoming one month after surgery
The Pope Leo Chiclayo visit came exactly one month after Leo had surgery for lung cancer, in which the lower lobe of his right lung was removed. He thanked the crowd for their prayers during his recovery. “In particular for my health in these moments of trial, which, with God’s help, I am overcoming,” he said in his homily.
Doctors have said the cancer was localized, had not spread, and would not require further treatment. There had been fears the trip would have to be cancelled, but Leo went ahead with the longest international trip of his pontificate.
Leo asked the faithful of his former diocese to keep praying for him “that Our Lord Jesus Christ may grant me the grace to strengthen always my brothers and sisters in the faith.”
Pope Leo Chiclayo visit closes South America trip
Peru is the final stop of the Pope Leo Chiclayo visit and the pope’s 12-day, three-country tour of South America, after visits to Argentina and Uruguay. Leo declared the country his homeland on Wednesday, and millions welcomed him when he arrived in Lima, the capital.
The pope has said the years he spent in Peru taught him how to be a shepherd. He earned a reputation in Chiclayo for staying close to poor communities during crises, including floods and the COVID-19 pandemic.
The afternoon in Chiclayo
After the Pope Leo Chiclayo Mass, Leo visited the Shrine of Our Lady of Peace, where he met priests, religious sisters, seminarians and lay parish leaders he worked with when he was bishop. He called on local clergy to turn talk of Church reform into concrete action by shedding clericalism.
He later spoke to students at the Santo Toribio de Mogrovejo Catholic University, warning them about the threats of technology without a human dimension to human dignity. Bishop Edinson Farfan Cordova, the current bishop of Chiclayo, said the pope’s presence held a “special meaning” for the people of his former diocese.