LIMA, Peru — Pope Leo XIV’s adopted hometown is expecting a huge spiritual tourism boom during his upcoming visit.
As part of Leo’s first apostolic journey to South America in November, he will visit 10 cities across Uruguay, Argentina and Peru — but plans to spend more time in his beloved diocese of Chiclayo in a coastal region in northern Peru than anywhere else during his visit to the country.
The pope, born and raised in Chicago, considers Chiclayo his home. He was its bishop from 2015 until 2023, when Pope Francis appointed him to a new high-level Vatican job and he moved to Rome. During those years in Chiclayo, the American-born leader grew deep roots in the community.
READ: A Gift From Heaven’: Pope Leo Prepares For Warm Peru Welcome
“He’s a man who walked with us, who identified with us, who suffered with us, who became just one more Peruvian, just one more Chiclayano, and that is why we love him so much here,” said Jesús León, coordinator of the Catholic group Milagro Eucarístico Peru 1649, from Chiclayo.
The first apostolic journey of Leo to South America will begin in Uruguay, continue in Argentina and end in Peru. He will travel between Nov. 6-16 and will spend the second half of this time in Peru, where he received citizenship in 2015. His influence in the country extends beyond the province. Before becoming Leo XIV, Robert Louis Prevost lived for more than 20 years in northern Peru in different periods of his priesthood between 1985 and 2023.
“He’s a pope who begins his pastoral work, his ministry, his mission as a priest in one of the poorest regions of Peru, building a style of priesthood connected to the people,” said Rolando Pérez, researcher at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru. “This is important because it is linked to Pope Francis’ vision of the Catholic Church.”
A city prepares for influx of visitors
Uruguay, Argentina and Peru had less than four months to prepare after the Vatican announced the trip on Aug. 5, meaning government and church leaders quickly leaped into action to organize the logistics of the trip and plan to accommodate large crowds in host cities.
Before Leo’s visit, at least one million people are expected to arrive in the province of Chiclayo, temporarily more than doubling the population, which has nearly 900,000 inhabitants as of 2025. Seventy percent of the population lives in the capital of the province, the city of Chiclayo.
The pontiff is expected to spend two nights in the city of Chiclayo, where he will meet students and university professors, visit the Cathedral and take a trip to the province of Santa Cruz in the department of Cajamarca, where he used to go every September to the celebration of the Lord of the Side (Señor del Costado in Spanish), patron saint of the province. He’s also expected to visit the town of Zaña in Lambayeque, where Saint Toribio de Mogrovejo died in 1606. Zaña is celebrating a jubilee year to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the saint’s canonization.
With limited hotel capacity compared to Lima or Cusco, the Chiclayo government is preparing the residents to have rooms available for the visitors who will arrive to see Leo.
The pope will celebrate the largest Mass of his visit to Peru in the desert area called Pampas de Pimentel, a short drive from Chiclayo.
“With a capacity for one million people, this will be the largest gathering of the visit,” said Kurth Mendoza, former chief press officer of the Peruvian Episcopal Conference.
In Peru, journalists will have access to an international press center in Lima and Chiclayo, said Mendoza. The Peruvian Episcopal Conference plans to announce details of Leo’s visit during September. Bishops and priests have already spoken about some of the events in the schedule, which will also include a youth meeting at the Monumental Stadium of Ate and a Mass at Las Palmas Air Base, both in Lima, and a prayer of the Holy Rosary in the Inca ruins of Sacsayhuaman, one of the most visited sites in Cusco.
A globetrotting pope
The pope’s tour will take place five months after an apostolic journey to Spain, which its organizers considered to be of immense spiritual and social impact. Spain had an estimated 2.5 million participants across Madrid, Barcelona and the Canary Islands.
In April, Leo had visited four countries in Africa on a trip that had less international impact than Spain.
“The visit to Spain served as his international debut,” said Rafael Rubio, chief press officer of the papal visit there, in an interview at the Gabriela Mistral University in Santiago, Chile, in August.
More than 5,000 journalists received press credentials, and the challenge was how many reporters could attend each event, he said. Rubio worked with 30 people and 200 volunteers to assist the press.
Before traveling to South America, Leo will embark on an apostolic journey to France between Sept. 25-28.
You can read this story in Spanish here.
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