Pope Leo XIV Arrives in Peru to Close Latin America Tour
Pope Leo XIV will have in Peru the longest stage of the tour, with six days in which he will visit Lima, Cusco, Pucallpa and Chiclayo. Photo: EFE.
November 11, 2026 Hour: 6:44 pm
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Pope Leo XIV arrived in Peru on Wednesday for the third and final stop of his Latin American tour, returning to the country he called home for more than two decades, where he will spend six days visiting Lima, Cusco, Pucallpa and Chiclayo.
The Argentine Airlines aircraft carrying the pontiff from Buenos Aires landed shortly after 5 P.M. local time at the Callao Naval Air Base, where he received an official welcome.
Peru is the longest leg of a journey that has already taken the first U.S.-born Pope to Uruguay and Argentina.
For Leo XIV, the visit is a homecoming. He lived in Peru for more than 20 years, a period that shaped his pastoral work from his early days as a missionary to his appointment as bishop, and he became a Peruvian citizen in 2015.
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As he descended from the plane, Pope Leo was received by President Keiko Fujimori, along with other Peruvian authorities and a crowd of Catholic faithful waving flags of Peru and the Vatican.
From there, the Pontiff will head to the historic center of Lima. On the way, he will take a short tour in the “popemobile” through some streets of the old town, before arriving at the main square, where the Government Palace is. There he will meet with the head of State and have a brief hearing with her cabinet.
Chiclayo, on the northern coast, holds special weight in the itinerary. Leo XIV served as bishop of the Diocese of Chiclayo for eight years, from 2015 to 2023, and during this stop he will visit several places in his former diocese. According to the Vatican’s program, he is due to arrive there on Friday, November 13, and that evening to lead a prayer meeting with the Catholic community marking the close of the Jubilee Year of Saint Toribius of Mogrovejo, who served as archbishop of Lima from 1579 to 1606. The next morning he is scheduled to preside over a coronation ceremony of the Immaculate Virgin at Chiclayo’s cathedral.
The tour began on November 6 in Uruguay, where he was the first pope to visit since John Paul II in 1988. It continued in Argentina, the first papal visit there since 1987, before he left Buenos Aires for Lima.
This is the fourth time that a pope has visited Peru, the first time it was done by John Paul II in 1985, who returned to the country in 1988. Across the three countries, the Vatican’s program includes public Masses, prayer vigils with young people and meetings with authorities, interfaith leaders, prisoners and workers.
Six Days, Four Cities
The Peruvian tour takes the Pope through the country’s three main regions: the coast, the Andes and the Amazon.
The northern tour carries special weight because Chiclayo was the diocese that Pope Leo XIV led for eight years. Local Catholics have long awaited his return, and the program gives the city and its surroundings the first days of the Peruvian visit.
On Friday, November 13, in Chiclayo, the pope will celebrate Mass on the esplanade of the Pampas de Pimentel, visit the chapel of Saint Óscar A. Romero and meet with representatives of the Church and the university community. The chapel is dedicated to the Salvadoran archbishop canonized in 2018. According to the Vatican’s program, that evening he is also due to lead a prayer meeting marking the close of the Jubilee Year of Saint Toribius of Mogrovejo, who served as archbishop of Lima from 1579 to 1606.
On Saturday, November 14, he will preside over the coronation rite of the Immaculate Virgin at the Cathedral of Santa María in Chiclayo. He will then travel to Santa Cruz de Succhabamba, in the northern Andean region of Cajamarca, to celebrate Mass.
Then, on November 15, flies to Cusco, in the southern Andes, where the program includes an encounter at the Saqsaywaman Archaeological Park and the Angelus prayer in front of the Cathedral of Cusco. He will then continue to Pucallpa, in the Amazon, where he will meet with missionaries and representatives of Amazonian people and celebrate Mass at the Ucayali Regional Sports Complex, before returning to Lima.
Pope Leo is scheduled to fly back to Rome on Monday, November 16, at 1:45 P.M. local time from the Callao Naval Air Base, after visiting a shelter run by the Little Sisters for Abandoned Elderly People and celebrate Mass at Las Palmas Air Base.
The Peruvian government has treated the visit as a matter of national interest. To manage the movement of pilgrims, it declared compensatory non-working days in Lima, Callao and six regions on a rolling schedule during the visit. Tourism Minister Rogers Valencia estimated in September that about 3.1 million people would take part in the events.
Moving through four cities in six days is a major logistical operation. Cusco sits at about 3,400 meters above sea level, and Pucallpa is reached mainly by air, which makes the schedule demanding for organizers, security forces and the pilgrims who are expected to follow the Pope along the route.
