Pope Leo visits remote Andes town on special stop of Peru tour

Pope Leo travelled on Saturday to Peru's western Andean mountains on a special stop on his 12-day South America tour to visit a remote town of fewer than 6,000 inhabitants who once knew him as the bishop of Chiclayo, a city that is a four-hour drive ‌away. Leo, visiting Peru on an emotional return home for the first Peruvian citizen to become pope, made a journey he took many times as Chiclayo's bishop from 2015 to 2023, travelling 100 km (62 miles) east from the Pacific coast to Santa Cruz de Succhabamba.

This time, instead of taking winding mountain roads where drivers go slowly to navigate steep ravines, the leader of the global Catholic Church arrived by helicopter. "Pope Leo, welcome home," a local ‌band sang as crowds gathered in a field for a Mass with Leo. Buildings across the town center, developed in a Spanish colonial style, were painted with murals depicting the pope when he was ‌a bishop in Peru.

Leo, originally from Chicago, lived for about 20 years in Peru as a missionary and holds US and Peruvian citizenship. He is visiting the country on the last and most personal leg of a three-nation tour that has drawn record crowds of some 12 million people. Cajamarca, the Peruvian department including Santa Cruz, is one of the poorest regions of the country, where up to 40% of the population lives in poverty, according to the state statistics office.

Speaking at a local parish shortly after arriving on Saturday, Leo ⁠said he ​felt "great joy" at being able to visit the small town ⁠again. "It is like a very big dream that the Lord has allowed this servant to come here," he said.

A CHANCE TO SEE 'FATHER ROBERT' Leo later celebrated Mass on a field near the parish. The crowd, estimated by the Vatican at 20,000 people, was ⁠smaller than other events on his South America tour, but many of the people present were known by Leo, who used to visit several times a year to minister to the town's rural population.

Among them was Rev. Kevin Noriega, a ​local priest ordained by the future pope, then known as Bishop Robert Prevost, in 2018. He said Leo, known to enjoy driving, used to drive himself in a pickup truck to visit the ⁠community and stay for days. "There is enormous hope and emotion today," said Noriega. "People are eager to experience this Holy Mass ... because after so much time they will be able to see their bishop — 'Father Robert,' as they used to call him — now as the Holy ⁠Father."

In ​a sermon on Saturday, Leo thanked the crowd for making the journey into town to see him and encouraged them never to lose heart, despite life's difficulties. "Brothers and sisters, the Lord knows the paths you travel, your hardships, your worries and the challenges you face," he said. "When strength is lacking, he is your nourishment."

Later on Saturday, Leo visited a Catholic shrine in Zana, Peru, where he lamented the history of ⁠African enslavement during Spanish colonial control of the country. Zana, 48 km (30 miles) southeast of Chiclayo, was a sugar cane production area where enslaved people were forced to work on plantations. The pope, who apologized in ⁠May for the Church's historic role in supporting slavery, said ⁠the city "preserves the memory of generations of Africans who were torn from their homes and subjected to slavery."

"Dear brothers and sisters of African descent, today I want to express my affection and closeness to you," he said. On Sunday, Leo's penultimate day in Peru, he will travel to Cusco, the former Inca capital, and ‌Pucallpa, a gateway to the Amazonian jungle.