Pope Leo XIV is returning home to the continent where he spent two decades as a missionary priest and learned to be a pastor, visiting Uruguay, Argentina and his second homeland of Peru VATICAN CITY -- VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Leo XIV is returning home to the continent where he spent two decades as a missionary priest and learned to be a pastor, visiting Uruguay, Argentina and his second homeland of Peru. The Nov. 6-17 trip marks the longest and farthest of his papacy and is coming just three weeks after Leo underwent surgery Oct. 13 to remove a cancerous tumor from his right lung. Doctors nevertheless gave him the green light to make the trip.
Latin America still is home to around 40% of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, but the Catholic proportion of the region’s population has shrunk in recent year s and the decreases are especially notable in the countries Leo will visit. The trip begins in Uruguay, whose secular identity and separation of church and state are so deeply entrenched that Christmas is officially “Family Day” and Holy Week is “Tourism Week.” According to Vatican statistics, nearly 77% of Uruguay’s 3.5 million people are baptized Catholics. But more than half of all Uruguayans identify as religiously unaffiliated — the highest portion in Latin America – and only a fraction of those who identify as Catholic actually go to Mass regularly.
Leo’s itinerary includes a stop at a parish in Casavalle, a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Montevideo plagued by drug trafficking and gang violence. The church works with national and municipal authorities on support initiatives, including housing construction and addiction recovery programs. Leo will also celebrate Mass in Paysandú, some 375 kilometers (230 miles) from the capital and chosen because of its accessibility to those living north of the Río Negro, a river that crosses the country, and proximity to the Argentine city of Colón.
The visit begins with a welcome ceremony at the Plaza Independencia in the center of Montevideo, a symbol of Uruguay’s national identity and history. The plaza features a monument to independence hero José Gervasio Artigas. But most significantly, Leo will mark an important Catholic feast day Nov. 8, which commemorates the Virgin of the Thirty-three, the patron of Uruguay and an icon deeply rooted in the country’s history and patriotism.
According to tradition, 33 independence patriots acquired the small, wooden Guaraní statue and had it with them when independence was declared from the Brazilian empire in the Uruguayan city of Florida on Aug. 25, 1825. It was to the virgin that the insurgents entrusted their faith. By celebrating the feast day, paying homage to Artigas and celebrating Uruguay’s independence, Leo is expected to emphasize that Uruguay’s secular nationhood is intrinsically connected to its Catholic heritage.
The goal is to suggest that there is still a place for faith today in even the most secular of countries. Pope Francis’ refusal to return home to Argentina during his pontificate, and his polarizing tenure as both archbishop and pope, left a conflicted legacy that will dog Leo’s visit. But the American pope will formally honor his predecessor when he visits Buenos Aires’ cathedral and in a more symbolic way when he visits the federal prison where then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio ministered to inmates.
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