Pope Leo XIV says he is in “fairly good shape” as he begins a 12-day trip through Uruguay, Argentina and Peru, with health access and hope on the agenda.
Pope Leo XIV has opened a 12-day South American tour in Uruguay just three weeks after surgery for a tumor on his right lung. His arrival puts the trip’s demanding schedule in focus, while the pope says he is in “fairly good shape” and hopes to bring a message of hope to the region.
The 71-year-old pontiff’s sixth international tour will take him to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru. The itinerary includes meetings with political leaders, prisoners and people in poverty, as well as time with friends from his years in the region.
Uruguay visit pairs public faith with health concerns
Thousands of people gathered along Montevideo’s waterfront, waving yellow and white Vatican flags as Leo passed in a custom-built popemobile. The crowd was smaller than those that greeted him in France and Spain, a difference that reflects Uruguay’s notably secular character.
At a ceremony in Plaza Independencia, where he was welcomed by left-wing President Yamandú Orsi, Leo addressed the country’s high suicide rate and called for healthcare to be “accessible to everyone.” He connected the appeal to his own experience following a lung cancer diagnosis, saying it had brought to mind people unable to get a timely diagnosis or treatment.
Uruguay is the first stop on the tour and the first papal visit to the country in nearly four decades. On Saturday, Leo is due to celebrate Mass in a park in Paysandú, where organisers expect 30,000 pilgrims. He will return to Montevideo to visit Casavalle, the capital’s neighbourhood with the highest homicide rate, and the Catholic University. At Centenario Stadium, he is scheduled to lead a prayer vigil for 60,000 people.
Speaking aboard the flight across the Atlantic, Leo said he was recovering “in fairly good shape.” For people facing cancer, his advice was “not to be afraid.”
His remarks in Uruguay also reflected differences between the country and Church teaching. Uruguay has legalised same-sex marriage and abortion, and euthanasia became legal there last year. Leo called for the “protection of the unborn,” while also praising the country’s “remarkable” progress in greening an economy powered mainly by renewable energy.
Peru offers a personal homecoming
Peru is expected to be the emotional centre of the journey. Leo spent nearly two decades there as a missionary and has called it “one of my many homes.” The schedule includes the former Inca capital of Cusco and the Amazon rainforest, along with a dinner with priests from his former diocese of Chiclayo and a private visit to a chapel he helped rebuild.
Anticipation has been building ahead of his arrival. In Lima, vendors are selling T-shirts and rosaries bearing his image, bakeries have put “Leo bread” on sale, and a 14-metre statue of the pope stands in the port city of Callao, another planned stop.
Leo’s Peru ties give the visit a distinct character, said Christopher White, a US-based Vatican expert and author of a book on the pope. He described the South American itinerary as a kind of double homecoming, given that Pope Francis, the first Latin American pontiff, never returned to Argentina during his papacy. Leo is a Peruvian citizen and will visit Argentina, Francis’s homeland, on Sunday.
A rare vote from the papal plane
The tour began amid another unusual moment for the first US-born pope: Leo said he had voted by mail in that week’s US midterm elections. His ballot made him the first pope known to have voted in a political election. “I’m proud to be an American and to exercise the right,” he said.
Leo has repeatedly clashed with US President Donald Trump over the war in the Middle East. On this trip, though, the immediate test is the pace of a demanding itinerary so soon after surgery, and the way his personal ties to South America shape a message centred on hope, health and community.
– TIMES/AFP
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