The Pope's trip to Peru: more of a homecoming than a state visit

- Junno Arocho Esteves, OSV News

From the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica in May 2025, Pope Leo XIV addressed Catholics around the world with a message of peace and a call for Christians to “walk together towards the homeland that God has prepared for us.”.

Before his election, he served in Rome for approximately two years as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops. However, during his first speech, his thoughts were not far from the place he had called home for more than two decades.

“And if you will allow me a few brief words, greetings to all and in particular to my beloved diocese of Chiclayo, in Peru, where a faithful people have accompanied their bishop, shared their faith and given so much, so much, to continue being a faithful Church of Jesus Christ,” the Pope said. 

Arrival in Peru, the return of a missionary, a Pastor who understood them

The final leg of Pope Leo XIV's tour of three Latin American countries will take the US-born Pontiff to his adopted homeland, and his arrival, not as a local bishop but as Supreme Pontiff, will probably be the most anticipated event. 

For the Peruvian people, the apostolic visit is not just a welcome to the Vicar of Christ. It is the return of a missionary, a neighbor, a pastor who understood the reality of those who lived there, particularly the poor and the marginalized. 

His return, just over a year after his election, means that Peru is not only hosting a Pope, but is celebrating the homecoming of someone whose experiences there shaped his vision for the universal Church. 

The mission

Father Robert Prevost set foot on Peruvian soil for the first time in 1985, where he served as parish priest in Chulucanas.

In the biography of the pontiff written by Elise Allen, Pope Leo recalled his arrival, which took place a year after devastating floods ravaged the region and “the roads were still destroyed.”.

“It was an extremely precarious situation, very different from today, and a part of me looked around and said, ‘Lord, where have you brought me?’”

Hospitalized for typhoid fever in Chulucanas

Before his arrival, the Pope had lived in Rome for four years and had loved it. However, shortly after arriving in Chulucanas, he was hospitalized with typhoid fever and recalled thinking, “God, either cure me or take me, because this is terrible.”.

Roma Clinic: God had a sense of humor

After noting that the clinic he was taken to was called “Clínica Roma,” the Pope said he knew God had a sense of humor regarding his missing out on the Eternal City.

“It was hard to leave Rome because everywhere I’ve lived, I’ve been really involved,” the Pope told Allen. “So he took me from Rome to Peru, which was a huge change, and I ended up at the Roma Clinic saying, ‘Okay, God, I get it.’”.

When the future Pope was saddened by his mother, Mildred

That moment, so soon after her arrival, marked a turning point, as she fully embraced her mission and the country she would call home. 

From that moment on, he grew much closer to his parishioners. In the Vatican News documentary about the Pope's life in Peru, «Lion of Peru», A parishioner, Hector Camacho, recalled visiting the future Pope at the parish and noticing that he was sad. 

Camacho recalled that Father Prevost told him he was traveling to the United States because his mother, Mildred, had passed away. Moved by the priest's grief, Camacho told him that his wife was pregnant and asked if he could name his daughter after his late mother, also requesting that he be the child's godfather, to which the future pope agreed. 

“I am sure that he will do a great job for everyone in the world,” Camacho told Vatican News, “because I am sure that where there is war, he will bring peace; where there is discord, he will bring love. Because he possesses those qualities, those traits, he has a positive aura.”.

Forging pastoral instincts

Those early years in Peru, including his service in Trujillo as a trainer of the Augustinians, forged his pastoral instincts by learning to listen and immersing himself in the realities of poverty and rural migration. 

He was elected Augustinian prior general in 2001, which took him back to Rome until 2013. He briefly returned to Chicago, and although he would eventually return to his adopted homeland, it wasn't exactly as he had imagined. 

An unexpected meeting, Pope Francis

In 2014, Pope Francis appointed him apostolic administrator of Chiclayo; an appointment that his possible successor did not expect. 

Pope Leo told Allen that, when the late Pontiff was archbishop of Buenos Aires, he and then-Father Prevost, while serving as prior general, had a minor disagreement.

“He (Pope Francis) had asked me to—it had to do with personnel matters—and I made decisions that were contrary to what he had asked of me,” the Pope recalled. “So, when he became Pope, I thought, «Well, he knows who I am; he’s not going to call me to be a bishop, because he knows I’ll say ‘no,’ depending on the matter.”.

He took her side

However, when Pope Francis appointed him to Chiclayo, the future pontiff said that his predecessor had told him that he remembered that the then Father Prevost had sided with him against an official of the Holy See. 

“I confronted someone from the Holy See, and when I was finishing my term as prior general, he told me: ‘I will never forget what you did on that occasion.’ And, apparently, he did not forget,” recalled Pope Leo. 

Chiclayo, a delicate position for the then Bishop Prevost

Chiclayo was a sensitive post for then-Bishop Prevost. In an interview with the National Catholic Reporter, Bishop Emeritus Dan Turley of Chulucanas said that the diocese was «considered an Opus Dei diocese» and that Pope Francis’s appointment of the Augustinian missionary was his way of affirming that “this is a diocesan diocese and as Pope I can appoint whomever I want.”.

As in his style as Pope, the then bishop “Robert”, as he was known, did not dedicate himself to imposing decrees from above, but adopted a consultative and open-door leadership style, typical of the Augustinian roots. 

Aldo Llanos, of Opus Dei: “He knew us and trusted us”

Aldo Llanos, a member of Opus Dei and professor of philosophy and anthropology at the University of Piura, declared To OSV News in May 2025: “In Chiclayo, Opus Dei runs family and youth formation programs. Bishop Prevost knew us and trusted us. When he left, during an informal meeting we had with him, he commented that he had never met people so hardworking and so obedient to their bishop.”. 

Commitment to those in need

Peruvians greatly appreciated his commitment to those in need, especially during the catastrophic coastal floods caused by El Niño in 2017, which devastated the Lambayeque region. The American bishop was on the front lines, visiting the affected areas and mobilizing business leaders to donate money and supplies.

Mobilization in response to the Covid pandemic 

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, Peru had one of the highest per capita mortality rates in the world, with more than 213,000 deaths recorded up to July 2022.

Faced with the oxygen shortage that hospitals in northern Peru were experiencing, then-Bishop Prevost mobilized civic leaders and launched «Oxygen of Hope,» a Caritas Chiclayo campaign that raised enough funds to buy two oxygen plants that provided free medical oxygen to residents.  

His calm governing style, along with his problem-solving skills, once again caught the attention of Pope Francis, and he was also appointed apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Callao in April 2020.

Stability in Callao

The appointment posed an additional challenge for the then Bishop Prevost, who had to deal not only with managing the diocese of Chiclayo in the midst of the pandemic, but also with a diocese mired in internal conflicts and divisions between its former bishop, Bishop José Luis del Palacio, priests and lay people. 

Following the acceptance of his resignation, the Vatican entrusted then-Bishop Prevost with the task of restoring stability. For a year, Bishop Prevost focused on direct dialogue with disaffected clergy, initiated administrative and financial reviews, and helped stabilize the diocese, until Pope Francis appointed Bishop Luis Alberto Barrera Pacheco to take over the see in April 2021.

Political and social divisions

The return of Pope Leo XIV to his adopted country comes at a delicate time for Peru, which earlier this year elected Keiko Fujimori as its ninth president in ten years. As in many countries, Peru has not been immune to the polarization that has affected global politics and has witnessed mass protests by people burdened by the high cost of living. 

Meanwhile, the Vatican has announced that the Pope will meet with abuse victims during his visit.

While advocates for the victims have thanked then-Bishop Prevost for his support of the victims of the now-defunct Sodalitium Christian Vitae movement, Peruvian survivors expressed concern about the Catholic Church's slow progress in completely suppressing the lay movement's presence in parishes. 

However, for many, the visit of the man they consider “the first Peruvian Pope” represents a much-needed respite from the divisions political and social issues of the country.

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Junno Arocho Esteves is an international correspondent for OSV News. You can follow him on Twitter @jae_journalist