This is a translation of the original article in Portuguese. Read the original (Português).
Pope Leo XIV was greeted by a huge crowd in Lima, the capital of Peru. According to the French newspaper Le Figaro, about three million faithful accompanied the arrival of the pontiff, who was born in the United States.
In his remarks, Leo XIV asked the Church to help heal the wounds that divide Peruvian society. The appeal casts the institution as a force for reconciliation in a country marked by internal tensions.
After Lima, the pope was to travel to Chiclayo, a city in northern Peru where he served as bishop. The return gives the trip a personal dimension: Leo XIV is not visiting the country as a stranger, but as someone who knew local realities as a shepherd.
For Brazil and the rest of Latin America, the pope’s visit to Peru carries weight that goes beyond religion. The region is home to the largest Catholic population in the world, and each papal trip to the continent tends to draw huge crowds and reopen debate about the Church’s role in public life, social peace and support for the poor.
The fact that the pontiff knows Peru from the inside also fuels expectations that his messages will have a tone closer to the experience of the faithful. By speaking of wounds that divide the country, he signals that he intends to use the visit to call for coexistence and dialogue, not only for celebrations.
The journey to Chiclayo is expected to strengthen that bond with local communities, in an itinerary that combines large gatherings in the capital with a return to a place where the pope exercised his ministry before taking charge of the Catholic Church.
Reporting from Le Figaro (p. 10, Lima (Peru): Papa Leão XIV é recebido com multidão em Lima).
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