Pope says it’s a ‘joy’ to be home in Peru
CHICLAYO, PERU—Pope Leo XIV returned Friday to his beloved former diocese of Chiclayo and said it was a “joy” to be home, as he visited some of his old stomping grounds and highlighted the social justice-minded mark he left behind.
The Pontiff, known here as “Padre Robert,” celebrated his first Mass on Peruvian soil on a vast, dusty field outside Chiclayo. The Vatican estimated 1 million people had lined his motorcade route to the Mass and that 500,000 attended.
“What a joy it is to return to Chiclayo! It is a blessing for me to be with you once again,” he said. Recalling the lung cancer surgery he underwent a month ago Friday, Leo said he was recovering “with God’s help.”
Chiclayo, population 700,000, is the commercial hub of Peru’s northern Pacific coast. But much of the world heard about it on the night of Leo’s election, May 8, 2025, when he gave Chiclayo a shoutout in Spanish from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica.
And on Friday, Chiclayo welcomed its former shepherd home.
Close to the poor
“I’m elated. He has decided to return to Chiclayo and we have him here, with us—home,” said Julie Albujar, who woke before dawn with her sister to travel to the Mass site, where they were tasked with taking the collection. “This is a party and it’s a sign of our faith and our love for the pope.”
The former Robert Prevost spent two decades as a missionary priest and bishop in Peru and credits the place and its people with teaching him how to be a shepherd. Pope Francis sent the Chicago-born Augustinian to take over as bishop of Chiclayo in 2014 and he stayed until Francis summoned him to Rome in 2023 to run the Vatican’s bishops’ office.
In hindsight, the 2023 transfer to Rome signaled that Francis saw in Prevost a potential successor, since the job is one of the most important in the Church and would give Prevost the Vatican experience that many consider necessary to be a viable contender for the papacy.
But Prevost’s heart is in Chiclayo, where he remains beloved for championing social justice issues and for his closeness to the people, especially poor people, during times of crisis. And he had quite a few during his tenure: COVID-19, devastating floods and a surge of Venezuelan migrants as the humanitarian situation worsened there in 2018.
“I’m so glad he’s returning,” said Rolando Antonio Mendoza, who was selling posters bearing the pope’s image in front of the cathedral where Leo used to celebrate Mass.
