Church and State Share the Stage on Pope’s Latin America Tour

Pope Leo XIV departed Rome on Friday, Nov. 6, for a trip combining public religious ceremonies with meetings with presidents, government authorities, workers, prisoners and young people across Uruguay, Argentina and Peru. The itinerary puts the head of the Catholic Church alongside state officials in three countries, while directing his attention to communities and people with less institutional power.

The journey is described as a twelve-day apostolic visit; Bloomberg called it an 11-day tour covering 19,000 miles. The schedule spans three countries and ten cities, with roughly a dozen flights, nine public Masses, seven cathedral visits and two stadium prayer vigils. Matteo Bruni, director of the Holy See Press Office, said Leo was enthusiastic and the program remained intact.

Who gets the visits

The schedule includes meetings with workers at the Catholic University of Argentina, a visit to a federal prison complex, and events with young people in Buenos Aires and Lima. In Peru, Leo is set to meet Amazonian missionaries and peoples in Pucallpa, visit a shelter for abandoned elderly people in Lima, and attend a public gathering on challenges facing the country. It also includes meetings with victims of clerical sexual abuse, reflecting the journey’s stated emphasis.

These encounters fit within a tightly managed institutional itinerary. In Uruguay, Leo will meet authorities and the diplomatic corps, visit President Yamandú Orsi, and celebrate vespers at the Metropolitan Cathedral. In Argentina, he will attend a welcome ceremony at Casa Rosada and meet President Javier Milei. In Peru, he will attend a ceremony at the Government Palace and meet the president.

No grassroots organizing, mutual-aid project or direct action appears in the program described by the Holy See Press Office. The listed encounters are visits, Masses, vigils and formal meetings, all arranged around a papal schedule released in September and reconfirmed that week without changes.

The institution and its itinerary

The Uruguay leg runs from Nov. 6 to 8, under the motto “I bring you news of great joy.” The program moves from Montevideo to Paysandú and Florida, including a Mass in Paysandú, a meeting in Montevideo’s Casavalle neighborhood and a prayer vigil at Centenario Stadium. Leo will celebrate Mass at the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Thirty-Three in Florida before flying to Buenos Aires.

Argentina’s motto is “Welcome everyone. Go and proclaim.” The schedule includes a visit to the monument to General José de San Martín, a Mass at the Monumento de los Españoles, an interreligious gathering and vespers with bishops and synodal teams. Leo will travel to Córdoba for Mass and a clergy meeting, return to Buenos Aires for a youth vigil, and celebrate Mass at the Basilica of Our Lady of Luján. It’s the first papal visit to Argentina since St. John Paul II in 1987. Argentina was the homeland of the late Pope Francis.

Peru is the longest stage, from Nov. 11 to 17, and carries the motto “Let us open our hearts.” Leo’s itinerary runs through Lima, Chiclayo, Cusco and Pucallpa, with meetings involving bishops, a university community, and Amazonian missionaries and peoples. It also includes a prayer at Saqsaywaman, Masses, and a visit to the San Óscar A. Romero Chapel.

A return shaped by institutions

Leo, the first American pontiff, spent about two decades in Peru as a missionary and seminary formator and served as bishop of Chiclayo from 2015 to 2023. He holds Peruvian citizenship. The Vatican described the Peru leg as a homecoming; Bloomberg reported that Leo, then known as Robert Prevost, told one of his former secretaries he wanted to return to Chiclayo, which he considered home.

The trip follows surgery for lung cancer on Oct. 13 at Gemelli Hospital. The Holy See Press Office said Leo remained clinically fit for travel. Surgeons removed the lower lobe of his right lung after an intraoperative examination confirmed lung adenocarcinoma. Doctors reported a successful operation, no complications and a normal recovery.

Bloomberg reported that the tour comes as Leo grows more assertive in his role and President Trump pushes for greater U.S. influence across the region. Church ceremonies and state meetings will take place in public view, alongside visits to people the institutions describe as vulnerable.