Pope Leo is in Peru, the country where he spent two decades of his life and where he holds dual citizenship, NPR reported. The Chicago-born pontiff spent decades in Peru before being called to Rome in 2023. He is a naturalized Peruvian citizen and often speaks Spanish with his followers. The 12-day South American trip also included visits to Argentina and Uruguay. NPR's Carrie Kahn, reporting from Lima, described the welcome as a "huge party" and said the country was "so happy" the pope was there. Host Scott Detrow said footage of the arrival showed 3 million people packing the streets. In his speech, Leo talked about the bonds he formed with his adopted homeland as a young missionary and said, "this is why I can say to you, with the deepest gratitude, I am back in my homeland." The line, Kahn said, drew strong, sustained applause. He stood alongside President Keiko Fujimori and joined in singing the national anthem at the welcoming ceremony.
The politics around that welcoming image are complicated. Leo, then known as Robert Prevost, was a missionary in Peru in the 1980s and 1990s, during the increasingly authoritarian rule of Fujimori's father, former president Alberto Fujimori. Detrow, who has written a book about Leo, said Prevost worked hard to be nonpolitical as a church figure, but that he and other Augustinian priests did march and organize against the government's authoritarian actions. Later, as a bishop, when Fujimori was pardoned and released from prison, Prevost bluntly criticized him, saying he needed to fully apologize to the Peruvian people.
On this trip, Kahn said, Leo has been calm and nonconfrontational, but has not avoided political points. In Uruguay, described as the least Catholic country in Latin America, he spoke about the country's secularism and the role of church and state as he stepped off the plane, without being confrontational. In Argentina, he said economics cannot be put before the people, a line seen as a critique of the far-right president's austerity cuts, again delivered calmly. In Peru, he has already said people deserve to be free of violence, which Kahn reported as an implicit reference to rising extortion, crime, and drug-trafficking violence.
Detrow said that pattern matches how Leo has spoken both before and after becoming pope: clear about his point of view, framed as standing up for church teaching rather than as a direct confrontation with an individual. Kahn said Leo, often subdued, has been "beaming" in Peru. The verified event is a homecoming: a naturalized citizen back in the country where he was a missionary, speaking to large crowds, and carefully circling the political tensions that come with standing next to Keiko Fujimori.