Mass at Lujan closes the Argentina leg

The pope's Peru homecoming begins once the Argentina leg is done. On Wednesday morning, Leo will celebrate an outdoor mass at the shrine of Our Lady of Lujan, Argentina's most important Catholic devotional site, where pilgrims have been gathering for days. Millions are expected.

The farewell mass is one of two moments the Vatican has set to carry weight during the Argentina stop:

• •A visit to one of the country's largest penitentiaries, amid the Church's criticism of President Javier Milei's cuts to social programs.
• •A three-nation itinerary running through November 17, part of a 12-day South America tour.

Arrival in the pontiff's second homeland

Leo holds both US and Peruvian citizenship, and served in Peru as a missionary for about 20 years before becoming pope last year. He is due to land at Peru's Callao Air Base at 5:30 p.m. (2230 GMT), then spends three days in the northern city of Chiclayo, where he was bishop from 2015 to 2023.

A closely watched address to Keiko Fujimori

At the presidential palace, Leo will give a closely watched address to Peruvian President Keiko Fujimori. She was elected this year in one of Peru's closest elections, marred by fraud accusations and vote-counting delays, and leaned heavily on her father's political legacy during her campaign. Her father, former President Alberto Fujimori, held office from 1990 to 2000 and died in 2024.

The backdrop is delicate. In 2017, when he was still Bishop Robert Prevost, Leo criticised the pardon granted to Alberto Fujimori - who had been convicted of serious human rights abuses - saying the former president should personally seek forgiveness from victims if Peru was to achieve genuine reconciliation.

Peru prepares to receive its own

Preparations are visible across the country. A 14-meter (46-foot) statue of Leo, arms outstretched, towers over a seaside park in Callao; Lima merchants are selling pope-themed merchandise, and inmates at Peru's largest women's prison have stitched velvet dolls of him.

Jose Luis Guadalupe Pérez, an academic at Peru's Pacific University, framed the trip as more than a pastoral call - not just a visit to the pope's flock, he said, but a visit to his home. Because of Leo's knowledge of Peru, he added, "he is bound to step on some toes."

Martin Cassinelli, an analyst at the Atlantic Council, noted how closely the pope follows Peruvian affairs: "There's no other country where the pope is as attuned to the domestic politics of that country than Peru." He also pointed to one sensitive area - a reflection on the past, which he said could sit uneasily with the current Fujimori government.

That history runs deep: relations between Alberto Fujimori's government and parts of the Catholic Church were frequently tense, particularly over human rights during the state's fight against the Maoist Shining Path insurgency, and Church figures opposed the 1995 amnesty for members of the security forces accused of rights abuses.

Across the tour, Leo has appealed for political dialogue and greater unity across a divided region, on what has been described as the most intense overseas trip by a pope in decades. The Peru leg, beginning with the 5:30 p.m. landing at Callao Air Base, caps his first South America tour as pope.