Pope Leo XIV touched down in his second homeland of Peru on Wednesday, beginning an emotional homecoming tour that marks the final leg of his travels across South America.
The pontiff was greeted at a Lima-area air base by President Keiko Fujimori, France 24 reported. Emerging from his Aerolíneas Argentinas charter plane, Leo smiled broadly, embraced two children who presented him with flowers, and waded into a tarmac crowd waving Peruvian and Vatican flags.
Thousands of spectators lined the motorcade route into the capital to welcome the former Robert Prevost back to the nation where he spent more than two decades as a missionary priest and bishop. The trip serves as an emotional pinnacle for the dual U.S. and Peruvian citizen, who often credits the country with teaching him how to be a pastor and shepherd.
“My heart is so excited that it makes me want to cry with joy,” Zuly Castillo, who served as Leo’s secretary when he was bishop of the northern coastal city of Chiclayo, told France 24.
Pope Leo XIV has arrived in Peru! The Pope is overcome with emotion as he returns to his adopted homeland, where he spent so many happy years, first as a missionary, and then as a bishop. pic.twitter.com/blad3qBAz5
“Peru is the crown of the trip, the homecoming of the pope, no matter where he was born,” Gustavo Morello, an associate professor of sociology at Boston College and author of Lived Religion in Latin America, told France 24.
Preparations for the visit stretched across the nation of 34 million people. In the port of El Callao, workers unveiled a 46-foot statue of the pontiff, while Lima baristas served cappuccinos decorated with his likeness. In Chiclayo, local merchandise including T-shirts, baseball hats, bobblehead dolls, and colorful murals have celebrated what locals call “Popemania.”
Leo’s itinerary includes celebrating Mass in Chiclayo and at the sanctuary of St. Turibius of Mogrovejo in Zaña. He will also travel to Pucallpa in the Peruvian Amazon to honor Indigenous peoples facing environmental crises and illicit mining, and to Cusco, the historic capital of the Inca empire, to celebrate Mass in the main square.
The papal visit arrives as Peru faces profound political and economic trials. A decade of severe political instability has cycled through nine presidents since July 2016, according to Alonso Cárdenas, a political science professor at the Antonio Ruiz de Montoya University, leaving citizens deeply weary of corruption and weary of authority.
While macroeconomic indicators show growth, poverty remains entrenched. Data from 2025 indicates that 25.7% of the population lived in monetary poverty, with structural insecurity gripping the majority of households despite a wealthy elite. Violent crime and homicide rates have also climbed sharply, doubling to 10.7 per 100,000 inhabitants from 5.8 five years prior.
Rolando Pérez, a professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, told France 24 that the pope’s return “inspires great hope among a large segment of Peruvian society that still perceives and feels the abandonment of the state.”
Although demographic surveys from the Pew Research Center show Peru’s Catholic population has declined from 76% in 2013-2014 down to roughly 67% today, the Catholic Church retains a level of institutional credibility that outstrips any secular branch of government.
“They’ll listen to the pope, and some inspired by his example, will renew their interest in the Church,” Véronique Lecaros, head of the theology department at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, told France 24. “In the end though, it will depend on how Catholic lay and clerical leaders choose to behave.”
