Crowds Cheer Pope While Fujimori Plays Reconciliation

Keiko Fujimori stood on the tarmac at Grupo Aéreo No. 8 in Callao to receive Pope Leo XIV, flanked by Foreign Minister Carlos Espá and a delegation of Catholic Church leaders. The president whose father led Peru through the 1990s and a brutal war against Maoist Shining Path rebels got her red-carpet photo op. Then, hours later at the Palacio de Gobierno, the pontiff told her to deal with the past.

Who Has the Power

The Vatican said three million people greeted the pope in Lima, another record after an estimated 2.5 million showed up for an outdoor Mass in Buenos Aires earlier this week. At the presidential palace, Fujimori was received with honours from the Mariscal Domingo Nieto cavalry regiment. A children's choir sang the national anthem at about 7:05 pm.

The pope's message to the president was pointed. After her narrow election victory earlier this year, he urged her to build confidence among her people and to confront the wounds of the country's turbulent past, alluding to her father's contested legacy. "Past events deserve to be treated with justice and sensitivity, leaving room for harmony to grow and for differences to be addressed with respect," he said. He called on Peruvians to cultivate "honesty, integrity, and a willingness to engage with others," saying those qualities were essential to sustaining trust and democratic institutions.

Fujimori answered that the visit was an invitation to pursue the country's "unfinished task" of national reconciliation. Nine years ago, when Alberto Fujimori was pardoned in 2017, Leo, then Bishop Robert Prevost, criticised the move. He said the former president should personally seek forgiveness from victims if Peru were to achieve genuine reconciliation. A pardon came from the top. Forgiveness, he said, had to be asked for.

Who Pays for the Spectacle

Peru got ready for the homecoming the way states always do. Authorities erected a 14-metre (46ft) statue of Leo with outstretched arms over a seaside park in Callao. The city of Lima announced road closures for the visit. Merchants sold pope-themed shirts and souvenirs to the crowds filling the main plaza. Maria Teresa Santa Cruz, 78, paid 25 soles, about $3, in three installments for her Leo T-shirt.

Fujimori, meanwhile, has asked the Senate for permission to travel to China and Japan from Sunday 15 to Saturday 21 November, and the Senate backed the trip. It isn't clear whether she'll attend Monday's farewell. The pope leaves Lima that day.

What People Actually Did

The affection in Chiclayo wasn't built by decree. Residents there describe a bishop who worked among them from 2015 to 2023. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he led the purchase of oxygen production plants. He waded through mud in rubber boots after torrential rains, celebrated Mass at the local prison, and drove his pickup truck to remote villages to hand out blankets. In 2017, when rivers overflooded and hundreds lost their homes, he helped deliver donations.

"He was the first person who came with help and cared about us when everything was flooded and the water reached our necks," said Rocio Zeña, who lost her home to flooding in 2023. Betania Marina Rodriguez, a Venezuelan migrant who lives in one of 13 homes built under his oversight, said he delivered live chickens to her door during the pandemic and "always said that human dignity has no borders."

A soup kitchen he inaugurated in the San Antonio neighborhood has been renamed "Papa Leon XIV." Volunteer Daria Chavarry said: "He told immigrants at the time that we welcomed vulnerable people." Today, 20% of Chiclayo's residents still live in poverty. The Rev. Jasson Sempertegui, who was Leo's secretary, said: "He's Chiclayano because he faced the biggest challenges of his pastoral life here. This helped him to connect with people's pain."

Flood relief and oxygen plants came from people showing up, not from a ceremony on a runway. When Leo left for Rome, Chiclayo's prisoners carved him a papal staff. "We knew he'd come back; Chiclayo is in his heart," said the Rev. Elmer Uchofen, the prison chaplain.

The Itinerary

The pope meets Peru's bishops Thursday and leads a midday prayer at Lima's cathedral. On Friday he flies north to Chiclayo for a Mass on the Pampas de Pimentel, then heads to Cusco and Pucallpa on Sunday before a Mass in Lima on Monday. Crowds waited for hours along the route from Callao, and some ran behind the car. The people turned out by the millions. What the palace does with the pope's words once the cameras leave is another matter.