Pope Leo XIV begins 12-day South America homecoming tour three weeks after lung cancer surgery
Pope Leo XIV has left Rome for a 12-day tour of Uruguay, Argentina and Peru — his first trip to South America as pope and his longest foreign journey yet — just over three weeks after surgery to remove a cancerous tumour from his lung.
Pope Leo XIV left Rome early on Friday for a 12-day tour of South America, returning to the continent where he spent decades as a missionary, just over three weeks after surgery to remove a cancerous tumour from his lung.
The journey through Uruguay, Argentina and Peru, which runs until 17 November, is the longest and most demanding foreign trip of his pontificate so far. The Vatican says the 71-year-old pope will travel some 31,000 kilometres across 10 cities, deliver 36 speeches, take a dozen flights and two helicopter rides, celebrate nine public Masses, visit seven cathedrals and preside over two stadium prayer vigils.
Leo, the first pope born in the United States, was born in Chicago as Robert Prevost but lived for two decades in Peru as a missionary priest, later becoming a Peruvian citizen and heading the diocese of Chiclayo from 2015 to 2023, before Pope Francis summoned him to Rome. Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni described the tour as a homecoming to places where the pope spent a long time and to which he feels closely connected, and Leo said on Tuesday that he was looking forward to returning to countries so dear to him.
The trip comes remarkably soon after his operation on 13 October, when surgeons removed the lower lobe of his right lung after a tumour was found during a routine medical scan. Doctors later confirmed the disease was lung adenocarcinoma, the most common form of lung cancer, but said it was localised and that he would not require any further treatment.
The Vatican said this week that the pope had completely healed from the operation and that no special precautions were being taken for the tour. Bruni told reporters the pope was clinically fit and personally enthusiastic about the trip, while a Vatican spokeswoman said he had fantastic stamina and was extremely enthusiastic about the programme. Medical experts told Reuters that the decision by his doctors to clear him to fly indicated the risk of complications was low, with the operated lung fully expanded and surgical wounds healing without signs of infection.
Leo departs Rome early on Friday morning and is due to arrive in Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, at 4.30pm local time. He will stay in the country until Sunday, visiting three cities, before continuing to Argentina for three days and then spending six days in Peru.
Uruguay, the most secular country in Latin America, is welcoming a pope for the first time in 40 years. A tight security operation is in place, with about 5,000 police officers and 1,000 soldiers mobilised. The pope will be driven along Montevideo's waterfront promenade in a custom-made popemobile, meet the left-wing President Yamandu Orsi and receive the keys to the city, and pray before the Virgin of the Thirty-Three, the small Marian image at the heart of Uruguayan Catholic identity.
The Argentina leg, from 8 November, is expected to be the most politically sensitive part of the tour. It is the homeland of Leo's predecessor, Pope Francis, who disappointed many Argentinians by never returning to visit during his papacy. On Sunday, Leo will give an address to President Javier Milei, a right-wing libertarian seen as a close ally of United States President Donald Trump, who lambasted Leo earlier this year after the pope criticised the war on Iran. The pope is also expected to address regional instability during the visit.
The final leg, in Peru, is expected to be the most emotional. After arriving in Lima, Leo will travel to Chiclayo, his beloved former diocese, and then by military helicopter on 14 November to the Andes mountain town of Santa Cruz de Succhabamba. He will also celebrate Mass in Cusco, the former capital of the Inca Empire, at an altitude of more than 3,400 metres, and visit Pucallpa in the Amazon region. The Vatican has described his return to Peru as a moment full of symbolism and emotion, and millions-strong crowds are expected across the tour.
The scale of the programme underlines how much is riding on the trip, both for the pope's standing in Latin America and as a public test of his recovery. The itinerary includes high-altitude stops and a relentless pace of travel, and the Vatican has stressed that no extra medical measures are in place beyond the standard care on papal trips, with no special equipment needed even for the journey to Cusco. Any change in his condition would be watched closely, but as things stand the Vatican has said the trip will proceed with no changes to the itinerary.
If the tour unfolds as planned, Leo will return to Rome on 17 November having visited the three countries that shaped his priesthood, met political leaders, prisoners and the poor, and reconnected with old friends in the land he still calls home. For a pontificate that began with a pope from Chicago who became a Peruvian citizen, the journey is as much a personal return as a diplomatic one, and its success is likely to shape how the Vatican plans his future travels.
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