Vatican Details Leo XIV’s Latin America Mission Path
Ten cities, some forty Spanish addresses and meetings with abuse victims mark a journey of communion as the Pope prepares to return to Peru.
On November 3, Holy See Press Office Director Matteo Bruni and Dicastery for Communication Prefect Maria Montserrat Alvarado presented the full outline of Pope Leo XIV’s apostolic journey to Latin America from November 6 to 17.
The itinerary covers ten cities in Uruguay (November 6–8), Argentina (November 8–11) and Peru (November 11–17), with roughly a dozen flights and about forty addresses, all to be delivered in Spanish. Bruni framed the voyage as one of communion, encounter and unity, underscoring the universal call to holiness and invoking local saints and blesseds: Blessed Jacinto Vera, St. José Gabriel del Rosario Brochero, St. María Antonia de Paz y Figueroa, St. Rose of Lima, St. Martin de Porres and St. Toribio de Mogrovejo.
Communion, Memory and Mission
Alvarado said the Pope personally confirmed the program with no changes. She described him as “so excited” and “grateful” for the faithful’s concern for his health after lung cancer surgery, and asked journalists to help convey his message of peace and encounter. The schedule includes nine Masses, three youth vigils, and encounters with civil authorities, bishops and synodal teams. The Holy Father will also meet Augustinian communities, victims of clerical sexual abuse, prisoners, the poor and people affected by environmental exploitation.
The journey is the first papal visit to Uruguay since 1988 and to Argentina since 1987. Peru is a personal homecoming: the Pope served there as missionary and bishop for nearly twenty years and holds citizenship.
Pastoral Landscape of Three Nations
Alongside the program, the Holy See Press Office released 2024 pastoral statistics. Uruguay counts about 2,754,000 Catholics (76.9 percent of the population); Argentina about 43,170,000 (91.7 percent); Peru about 31,074,000 (91.3 percent). Across all three countries, the numbers of priests, religious and baptisms have declined since 1980.
Alvarado noted that the itinerary “shows you his heart” and that journalists will hear the Pope speak spontaneously “in a language that is true to him.” The trip thus joins a return to lands that formed his priestly life with a public witness of unity, mercy and the Church’s preferential love for the wounded and the poor.