Pope Leo XIV returns to Peru, the country that shaped his path to the papacy
Pope Leo XIV, born Robert Prevost, returns to Peru as a homecoming trip covering Lima, Cusco, Chiclayo and other cities, recalling decades of pastoral work in the country he came to as a missionary in 1985.
Pope Leo XIV, the former Robert Prevost, is returning to Peru, the country he regards as his adopted homeland. The trip, which takes in Lima, Cusco, Chiclayo and other cities, is framed as a homecoming for a man who holds Peruvian citizenship and is remembered there as Padre Robert.
Prevost first arrived in Peru as a missionary in 1985. He served in Chiclayo, where he later became bishop, and he is a member of the Augustinian order. Pope Francis subsequently appointed him prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops at the Vatican. He then became a cardinal and, in 2025, pope. The visit therefore returns him to the place where much of his pastoral life was formed, and it is the setting in which many Peruvians came to know him as a priest working among ordinary parishioners.
His record there includes emergency work during the Covid-19 pandemic. He led aid to the Callao diocese during the lockdowns, travelling about 700 kilometres every two weeks to deliver food and guidance. Peru recorded more than 219,000 Covid-19 deaths. During the crisis he raised more than US$380,000 for two oxygen plants in Chiclayo, a city where the shortage of medical oxygen was among the most acute problems facing hospitals.
Disaster relief has been another part of his work. During the coastal El Niño floods of 2017 he waded into floodwaters to reach people affected by the rains. After Cyclone Yaku in 2023, which affected more than 10,000 people, he launched appeals for aid, drawing on the networks of the church to reach communities that had lost homes and livelihoods.
Migration is a further area of his engagement. Peru has received more than 1.6 million Venezuelans through November 2025, and more than 20,000 of them passed through Chiclayo, with over 3,500 families settling locally. Under his leadership the diocese created a commission for human mobility and trafficking, and built the San Vicente de Paúl village at Puerto Etén. He gave priority to securing legal status so that migrants could work, a position that addressed one of the central difficulties facing those who arrived with few documents and little income.
Peru's recent history of violence is also part of his record there. He encouraged dialogue about the violence of the internal conflict between the 1980s and 2000, supported the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and collected signatures in Trujillo in its support. He has also discussed the abuses committed under the 1990s regime of Alberto Fujimori, placing the pursuit of truth about the past at the centre of his public remarks on the country.
Details of the visit's agenda beyond the cities named in the programme have not been set out in detail, and the lasting impact of Prevost's policies on migrants remains unclear.
Source: keyt.com
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