MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Pope Leo XIV expected to visit Peru in November, including his former diocese of Chiclayo

Leo XIV, the American-born Robert Prevost, has a close relationship with Peru, where he is known as “the Peruvian pope.”

Pope Leo XIV is expected to visit Peru in November, returning to the country where he was bishop of Chiclayo, carried out much of his pastoral life and obtained citizenship. Interim President José María Balcázar said on Sunday that the trip is “programmed from November 10,” in brief remarks after voting in the presidential runoff.

The Presidency had already confirmed in early June, after a meeting between Balcázar and Cardinal Carlos Castillo, the archbishop of Lima, that the visit would take place in November of this year. The Holy See, however, has not yet officially set the exact dates. The president plans to travel to the Vatican on June 18 to formally extend the invitation to the pontiff and coordinate the details of the trip.

According to current plans, Leo XIV would visit Lima and Chiclayo —a city on the northern coast about 760 kilometers from the capital— and a third location that could be in the Peruvian Amazon, with which the pope also has ties. Foreign Minister Carlos Pareja said the visit would be part of a tour that would also include two other countries in the region.

Leo XIV, the American-born Robert Prevost, has a close relationship with Peru, where he is known as “the Peruvian pope.” He arrived in the country in 1985 as part of an Augustinian mission and carried out pastoral work before being named apostolic administrator and then bishop of Chiclayo, a post he held until his transfer to the Vatican in 2023. In 2015 he obtained Peruvian citizenship, and in 2025 he was elected head of the Catholic Church.

The Peruvian Episcopal Conference (CEP) had said the visit was being planned for November or early December and was “80%” confirmed. “He wishes to visit Peru, because he loves Peru and has great gratitude toward the country,” the president of the CEP, Carlos García, said at the time. The first announcement of a possible visit had been made in February by then-Foreign Minister Hugo de Zela, who said the pontiff had been officially invited by the authorities.

This weekend, Leo XIV is visiting Spain. The possible tour of South America, which the Holy See has not yet officially confirmed, would be the pontiff's first trip to Peru since his election and one of the most anticipated events of the year in the Andean country.