Pope Leo XIV is packing his bags for Peru. He’s heading there in early November. Interim President Jose Balcazar spilled the beans on Thursday after a two-hour sit-down at the Vatican, confirming the pontiff will spend up to ten days touring his old stomping grounds.
It’s a homecoming. Before he wore the white cassock, Leo was Robert Prevost, an American cardinal who climbed the ranks in the northwestern diocese of Chiclayo and even snagged Peruvian citizenship back in 2015. Now, he’s the boss. The itinerary is packed. He’ll hit the capital city of Lima, return to Chiclayo, and swing through several other dioceses.
Balcazar seemed pleased. According to the interim leader, the two-hour Vatican chat drifted far beyond the usual dry national politics into the much more agreeable territory of Chiclayan cuisine. Food heals all.
This isn’t just a single stop, either. It’s part of a larger, exhausting South American tour that will eventually drag the pontiff through Uruguay and Argentina later this year.
