American flag flies for Pope Leo’s Peruvian homecoming

Long before Pope Leo returned ​to Peru's northern city of Chiclayo ​to a hero's welcome on Friday, ‌US ​citizen Mikel Fuller knew him as Bishop Robert Prevost, working with the future pontiff for nearly a year while Fuller taught English ‌at a local school.

So when Fuller, 55, joined the pilgrims heading to the desert park Pampas de Pimentel for Leo's Mass, he carried a conspicuous reminder of Leo’s other homeland: an American flag. The ‌Denver native, who has lived in Peru for about 15 years, left Chiclayo with ‌his family on Thursday night for a journey by car that normally takes 20 minutes but stretched into hours due to heavy traffic. The family walked 5 km (3 miles) to reach the Pampas de Pimentel around midnight. There, ⁠they prayed, ​slept on the ground ⁠and waited for morning.

Born in Chicago, Leo later became a Peruvian citizen after spending nearly two decades as a ⁠missionary and bishop in Peru. His South American tour, which began on November 6, has taken him to ​Uruguay, Argentina and Peru. For Fuller, the man who returned as pope was still recognizable as ⁠the bishop he remembered. Fuller said Prevost listened when people brought him problems and tried to help.

“The one thing that ⁠I ​really noticed about him is that he’s caring,” Fuller said. Leo's homecoming will take him back on Friday to the Santo Toribio de Mogrovejo school where Fuller worked. The pope will ⁠eat dinner with diocesan priests there.

Fuller said Leo’s return infused Chiclayo with energy. The city of ⁠620,000 people spruced ⁠itself up, he said, while residents embraced a stream of visitors to see the pope. For Fuller, though, something deeper was at work: “God placed him ‌there,” he said.