If the “popemania” that has taken over Peru’s capital is any indication, Pope Leo XIV is in for quite a welcome party when he arrives in his beloved former diocese of Chiclayo on Friday.
asserted
he → take → Friday
But much of the world heard about it on the night of Leo’s election, May 8, 2025, when he gave Chiclayo a shoutout, in Spanish, from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica.
uncertain
he → hear → Basilica
And on Friday, Chiclayo is welcoming its former shepherd home.
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Chiclayo → welcome → shepherd
“I’m so glad he’s returning,” said Rolando Antonio Mendoza, who was selling posters bearing the pope’s image in front of the cathedral where Leo used to celebrate Mass.
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Leo → ’m → Mass.
“Even though he’s now Pope Leo XIV, he hasn’t forgotten about his homeland.
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he → ’ → homeland
Church organizers say as many as a million people could turn out for Leo’s first big Mass in Peru, being held Friday morning on a massive field outside Chiclayo.
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people → say → Chiclayo
Beloved for being close to the poor
The former Robert Prevost spent two decades as a missionary priest and bishop in Peru and credits the place and its people with teaching him how to be a shepherd.
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Prevost → spend → him
Pope Francis sent the Chicago-born Augustinian to take over as bishop of Chiclayo in 2014 and he stayed until Francis summoned him to Rome in 2023 to run the Vatican’s bishops’ office.
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Francis → send → office
In hindsight, the 2023 transfer to Rome signaled that Francis saw in Prevost a potential successor, since the job is one of the most important in the church and would give Prevost the Vatican experience that many consider necessary to be a viable contender for the papacy.
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many → signal → papacy
But Prevost’s heart is in Chiclayo, where he remains beloved for championing social justice issues and for his closeness to the people, especially poor people, during times of crisis.
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he → remain → crisis
And he had quite a few during his tenure: COVID-19, devastating floods, and a surge of Venezuelan migrants as the humanitarian situation worsened there in 2018.
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situation → have → 2018
“Chiclayo is a party,” said Rocio Zena, who remembered how Prevost helped her when she lost her family home in the 2023 floods.
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she → say → floods
“We’re overjoyed to welcome the Holy Father with so much faith.
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We → overjoy → faith
He arrives, no longer as Prevost but as Leo XIV.
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He → arrive → XIV
And he’s coming home.”
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he → come → ?
In town, the El Trebol restaurant proudly calls itself the restaurant of the pope and his image is displayed in framed photos of Prevost riding a horse, wading through the mud in rubber boots and celebrating his birthday with a cake.
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Prevost → call → cake
A sign on his favorite table — No. 3 — with a view of the cathedral, reads: “mesa bendita” – Spanish for blessed table.
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sign → read → table
Like many other places around the city, the restaurant sells “Papaletas” or “Pop(e)sicles with Leo’s image in white chocolate.
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restaurant → sell → chocolate
Just a few steps from the restaurant, a life-size cardboard cutout of the pope now welcomes visitors to his former residence at the diocese, where an exhibit displays the amaranth purple, scarlet and white zucchettos, or skullcaps, that he wore as bishop, cardinal and now pope.
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he → welcome → bishop
“I feel so happy about my work because the pope is Chiclayano,” said Cynthia Charrary, who was sweeping the streets near the city’s main square ahead of Leo’s arrival.
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who → feel → arrival
“We want our city to be cleaner than ever.”
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city → want → ?
A giddy pope on his home turf
Ever since Leo touched down on Peruvian soil on Wednesday, the world has seen a very different pope.
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world → touch → pope
Normally reserved and placid, the 71-year-old Leo has seemed at turns positively giddy and overwhelmed with emotion to the point of tears.
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Leo → seem → tears
That was certainly the case on Thursday night when some 60,000 young Peruvians sang for him in the Lima stadium.
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Peruvians → sing → stadium
It was also the case when he sang the national anthem at the presidential palace upon his arrival on Wednesday.
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he → sing → Wednesday
Leo has also sung along with popular songs and hymns, tapping his fingers to the beat on an armchair.
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Leo → sing → armchair
On other occasions, he has shown himself so relaxed and comfortable as to joke about his health.
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he → show → health
Speaking to Peruvian bishops, he joked about how some “doubting Thomases” didn’t think he’d make it because of his recent lung cancer surgery.
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he → speak → surgery
After the Mass, Leo’s other main events of the day include a meeting with Chiclayo clergy and seminarians and a speech to the Catholic university where he served as chancellor during his years as bishop.
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he → include → bishop
The university is named for the 16th-century first archbishop of Lima, St. Turibius de Mogrovejo.
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university → name → Lima
Leo is particularly devoted to Mogrovejo and in many ways modeled his ministry on his.
Mogrovejo is revered for having traveled long distances on horseback to be with his flock and for having defended the rights of Indigenous and enslaved peoples.
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Mogrovejo → devote → peoples
He studied Quechua and Aymara and oversaw the printing of church teaching in these Indigenous languages, because he believed the faith had to be transmitted in a language people could understand.
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people → study → language
The Rev. John Lydon, an Augustinian who lived with Leo in Peru for over 10 years, says his commitment to Peruvians, human rights and involving the lay faithful in the running of church initiatives was born during his stints first as a young missionary priest in Chulucanas, then Trujillo and finally as bishop in Chiclayo.
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commitment → live → Chiclayo
Lydon recalled that when Leo first arrived in Peru in the mid-1980s, during the period of the Shining Path terror campaign and the authoritarian Fujimori regime’s crackdown, then-Rev. Prevost led a campaign to collect signatures to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
“These are the kind of things that just mark his identity,” Lydon recalled.
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Lydon → recall → identity
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Winfield reported from Lima, Peru
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Winfield → report → Lima
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