Pope Leo XIV Returns to Chiclayo, the Peruvian City He Calls Home: ‘What a Joy’
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For Pope Leo XIV, the trip to Chiclayo was less a papal visit than a homecoming.
The first American pope returned on Friday to the city in northern Peru where he served as bishop, and he made no effort to hide his emotions. “What a joy it is to return to Chiclayo!” he told the crowd.
Here’s why this city means so much to him.
A Second Home
Before he became pope, Robert Francis Prevost spent years in Chiclayo, first leading the diocese from 2014 and then serving as its bishop from 2015 until 2023, when he was called to the Vatican. Locals knew him as “Padre Roberto,” and he became a Peruvian citizen in 2015.
Born in Chicago in 1955, he liked to joke about his two hometowns: “Chicago, Chiclayo, what difference is there? Only one letter.”
An Emotional Mass
The Vatican estimated that about 500,000 people attended his Mass at Pampas de Pimentel, with about 1 million more lining the route, Al Jazeera reported. Peru’s President Keiko Fujimori was among those in attendance.
“As I look at your faces, a prayer of thanksgiving to the Lord arises in my heart for the blessing you have been and continue to be in my life,” the pope said.
“Today I understand how much of this land remains with me and how much of my own story also belongs to you,” he added, according to NBC News.
The visit came about a month after the pope underwent lung cancer surgery, which he described as a “time of trial,” NBC reported.
The Final Stop of a Long Trip
Chiclayo is the last leg of a 12-day trip to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru. Earlier in the week, an estimated 3 million people turned out in Lima.
On Saturday, the pope is scheduled to crown a statue of the Virgin Mary at Chiclayo’s cathedral and celebrate Mass in Santa Cruz de Succhabamba. He visits Cusco and Pucallpa on Sunday and celebrates Mass in Lima on Monday before flying back to Rome.
Leo XIV was elected on May 8, 2025, becoming the first pope from the United States. In Chiclayo, he was simply coming home.
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