It was a remarkable homecoming for Pope Leo.
Millions of Peruvians have turned out on the streets of Lima, a city of 10 million people, to see and cheer him everywhere he goes. Yesterday, local media said two million people had come out to welcome him when he traveled from the airport to the government palace. There were sights of jubilation in so many places, enriched by song, music and chants of “León, León.” According to local media, “Papamania” has swept across Peru.
The same is true today. Peruvian President Keiko Fujimori summed it up well in her welcome address last evening at Lima’s Gran Teatro Nacional: “These are days of festivity, celebration and coming together around our spiritual guide.”
Across the city, there are posters, all carrying the same message: “El Papa vuelve a casa!” (“The pope is coming home!”). For the 37 million citizens of this country, he is “one of us,” a hero and the first Peruvian pope. This morning the mayor of Lima gave him the keys to the city and the Peruvian national football team’s jersey. Everyone wants to come close to him. The thousands of police and soldiers lining the streets are hard-pressed to keep them from reaching his car or popemobile.
I have not seen anything quite like this since Pope Francis’ visit to Manila in January 2015. Pope Leo is enjoying every moment; he appears energized by the crowds. In every speech, he says how happy he is to be back home.
Crowds lined the street this morning as he drove from the Vatican embassy to the archbishop’s residence for a meeting with the country’s bishops, accompanied by the city’s archbishop, Cardinal Carlos Castillo Mattasoglio. En route, he stopped to pray at the famous image of the Lord of Miracles that is so dear to all Peruvians. (The wall on which the image is painted miraculously survived an earthquake in 1655 when all around it was destroyed.)
The crowd gathered around the archbishop’s residence cheered when he arrived. On entering, he went to the chapel where all the bishops were gathered. Leo knew them all, since he was vice president of the conference when Francis called him to Rome, and today Bishop Carlos Enrique García Camader, president of the conference, welcomed him back, saying: “Welcome to your beloved Peru, Holy Father! Welcome to this land of faith, saints and hope, which today welcomes you with open arms and a grateful heart. Welcome home!”
Pope Leo’s conveyed his immense joy at being back with them. He thanked them for their welcome and for their “prayers for my recovery,” and for their efforts in organizing his visit.
He began by recalling the Great Inca Road, the Qhapaq Ñan (roughly 20,000 miles long, built in the 15th century by the Inca Empire), which united territories, communities and cultures throughout this land; “drawing on this image,” he invited them “to reflect on our episcopal mission” because “the church is like a path leading us to a communion and hope that crosses the mountains of indifference, the deserts of individualism and the distances that separate people.”
He recalled, too, that the motto of his visit—“Let us open our hearts!”—“invites us to conversion, to communion and to mission.”
He explained that “opening one’s heart” for a bishop “means knowing the path to God so that he may walk alongside the faithful, as well as allowing God and the faithful to challenge his priorities.”
He reminded them that the bishop is “a servant in his diocese of the history of salvation that began before him and will continue after him” and for this reason, “opening one’s heart” for the bishop “means recognizing the path that God is already traveling with his people, the journey that still lies ahead and the direction in which we must go to continue building a future of hope for all.”
He said opening one’s heart “also means getting to know his diocese by entering people’s homes, accompanying the sick, meeting young people and reaching out to communities which, due to their geographical remoteness or social vulnerability, are rarely able to make their voices heard. Indeed, the shepherd is called to go out and meet everyone.”
He cited the example of the famous missionary bishop, St. Turibius of Mogrovejo, “who understood that his mission required him to be with the communities in order to focus first and foremost on Christian formation and to ensure that the Gospel could also be proclaimed in the languages of the indigenous peoples.”
Leo recalled that the Great Inca Trail was no easy path, “for its steep ascents and narrow passes test the traveler’s endurance.” Likewise, “the episcopal mission does not always follow clear paths. We encounter pastoral difficulties, social divisions, misunderstandings and decisions that can prove to be painful.” He said St. Turibius “helps us to understand that pastoral charity does not consist in avoiding problems but in remaining faithful to Christ and seeking the greatest possible good for people.” He added, “Just as the hardships of the journey wind through the mountains, so too does the Cross of Jesus weigh upon our ministry.”
He reminded the bishops that the Great Inca Trail “is not to be walked alone” and said, “As a traveling companion to his priests, [a bishop] does not merely show them the way, but also shares in their struggles and aspirations, recognizes God’s footprint in their lives and ensures that no one is left behind.” He told them, “the truth is that walking together fosters communion, a gift for which we must always pray: communion with the successor of Peter, with the other bishops, with men and women religious and with the whole People of God.” He said that “this is essential for faithfully traveling the way which is Christ.”
He expressed his joy at the way the Peruvian church has undertaken “the synodal process…in partnership with the People of God,” and encouraged them to continue “making it increasingly possible to build a church in which we all recognize ourselves as co-responsible and missionary disciples of the Lord—a church in which each person lives according to their own vocation, in mutual trust, so that authority is not exercised autocratically nor is obedience mere servility.”
He then recalled the saints who have walked these lands beside St. Turibius of Mogrovejo, and mentioned St. Rose of Lima, who reminds us “that apostolic fruitfulness depends on our union with the Lord and, consequently, on the care we take of our own spiritual life in the episcopal ministry.” He also recalled the Spanish missionary friar, St. Francis Solano (who died in Lima in 1610), “who reminds us that the church exists to proclaim Jesus Christ, especially to those living on the human and geographical peripheries.”
He also recalled St. Martin de Porres (a Peruvian Dominican lay brother who died in Lima in 1639) and St. Juan Macías (a Spanish Dominican lay brother), both famous for their humility, “who teach us to recognize Christ in the least among us” and taught us “that charity begins with a simple gesture, a listening ear.” He said, “They also remind us that no person can be judged by their rank, their origins or their social status.”
Significantly, Pope Leo drew attention to “a reality that has caused us so much pain: the abuses perpetrated by members of the clergy or within the context of the church.” In recent years, one such situation was linked to the Sodalicio de Vida Cristiana, a Catholic Society of Apostolic Life founded in Lima, Peru, in 1971 and formally dissolved by Pope Francis in 2025, with the support of Cardinal Prevost.
As a bishop in Peru, Robert Prevost was head of the commission of the bishops’ conference that deals with the abuse crisis; today, he told the bishops, “We must respond as Jesus would, with truth, justice, forgiveness, making amends and an ever more resolute commitment to fostering a culture of prevention and protection for the weakest in light of such crimes.”
Returning to the saints, he said each was distinct yet united by a single faith: bishops, priests and laity, they were Spaniards, Creoles and Mulattos, and they “represent the unity of the church in Peru and form a school of holiness.” He said, “they continue to walk with us, here and now, along the many paths of the one Way, teaching us to be one in Him (Illo uno unum).”
Leo then recalled that in 2018, “I was seated among you in this very place, and we received from our beloved Pope Francis a passionate exhortation to work for unity. I recall that he told us: ‘Do not remain prisoners of divisions that create cliques and hamper our vocation to be a sacrament of communion… That was — and is and always will be — the best way to evangelize.’” Leo added, “Communion among you, among us, is the foundation of the credibility of the Gospel you proclaim.”
He told them that as bishops, they are called “to be bridge-builders, to foster dialogue, to educate others in having fruitful encounters and to help heal the wounds that divide Peruvian society.”
He said there was a need to “strengthen episcopal fraternity” and said, “no bishop should feel alone on this journey. No particular church should carry out its mission as if it were separate from that of the others.” It is only through communion that “the bishop will be an instrument in preventing social or political polarization from weakening his prophetic and evangelizing mission.”
“Today,” the pope said, “Peru needs shepherds capable of listening to the questions of our time and illuminating them with the clarity of the Gospel.” If they do so, he said, “they will be able to accompany families, support young people, defend the life and dignity of every person, promote justice and commit to the care of creation, helping in a particular way those who suffer from poverty, exclusion, corruption, violence and a lack of opportunities.”
He urged them “to combine doctrinal fidelity with pastoral closeness; the celebration of the sacraments with a commitment to our neighbor; and the formation of consciences with a concrete witness of charity.” Above all, he urged them to pray: “Before the tabernacle, we regain the correct perspective on our ministry. The church does not belong to us; it belongs to Christ. We are messengers who will one day complete our journey. Only God remains!”
He concluded his speech to the bishops with three suggestions: “First: Do not cease to walk with the people. Second: Let us never cease to walk together, in episcopal communion, as witnesses to the unity we proclaim. Third: Let us never tire of opening our hearts to God, so that he may renew our vocation; to our brothers and sisters, so that divisions may be healed; and to his people, so that they may find in you the ‘father bishop’ who is close at hand, courageous and merciful.”
He then greeted each bishop individually and stood with them for a group photo. He went on to pray with the bishops, clergy, religious and pastoral workers, and crowds accompanied his every move. He had a meeting on the challenges and hopes of the people of Peru, and after lunch he met his fellow Augustinians living in this region, and then went to a youth vigil in the football stadium. He ended the day by having dinner with the bishops. Tomorrow, he boards the plane for a flight to his former home of Chiclayo, where he will spend three days and two nights in another Peruvian homecoming.
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