Pope Leo XIV has been welcomed back to Peru by crowds the Vatican estimates at three million people, the largest turnout of his 18-month papacy, as the pontiff returned to the country where he spent two decades as a missionary and bishop.
Leo arrived in Callao, near Lima, on Wednesday to a hero’s welcome, with crowds lining the streets for miles as he toured the capital in an open-air popemobile. Lima’s historic centre effectively shut down as pilgrims, families and church groups pressed against security barriers to catch a glimpse of him.
Addressing a packed audience at the Gran Teatro Nacional on his arrival, the pope declared to wide applause that he considered Peru his homeland. “Thank you for being here and welcoming me with open hearts, as your brother,” he told crowds in Lima on Thursday. “You make me feel at home.”
Born Robert Prevost in Chicago, Leo holds both United States and Peruvian citizenship. He served as bishop of Chiclayo, in northern Peru, from 2015 to 2023, and lived in the country for about 20 years before his election as pope. Peru is the final and most personal leg of a three-country tour of South America that has also taken him to Uruguay and Argentina.
The crowds in Peru have been the largest Leo has drawn as pope, and the largest for a pontiff since some seven million people greeted his predecessor Francis in the Philippines in 2015, according to Reuters. On Thursday, a prayer vigil with young people at Lima’s national football stadium drew a Vatican-estimated 360,000 people inside the ground and on surrounding streets.
The visit has also carried pointed messages. On Wednesday, Leo urged President Keiko Fujimori to confront the wounds of Peru’s turbulent past and rebuild trust among her people, after her narrow victory in an election earlier this year that was marred by fraud accusations. He also met Peru’s bishops and urged them to treat victims of clergy abuse fairly, and on Thursday met six Peruvian victims of abuse by Catholic clergy.
The pope, who underwent surgery for lung cancer less than a month before the tour began, has appeared in good form, leading about five public events a day and delivering long speeches in a firm, clear voice.
On Friday, Leo travelled to Chiclayo, his former diocese, where around a million people lined the streets and some 500,000 attended an open-air Mass, according to Vatican estimates. He was due to continue over the weekend to Cusco, in the Andes, and the Amazonian city of Pucallpa, before a closing Mass in Lima on Monday.
Sources: Reuters, https://froggyweb.com/2026/11/12/millions-throng-streets-of-lima-for-pope-leos-emotional-return-to-peru/ ; CNN, https://www.cnn.com/2026/11/11/americas/pope-leo-peru-visit-latam-intl?cid=external-feeds_iluminar_meta
Note: crowd figures in this article are Vatican estimates, as reported by Reuters and CNN.
