Pope Leo Returns to Peru Homeland as 3 Million Flood Lima Streets for Historic Tour

LIMA — Pope Leo XIV touched down in Lima on Wednesday and claimed Peru as his homeland.

Nearly three million people lined the capital's roadways to greet him. They waved Peruvian and Vatican flags under an overcast coastal sky. Several supporters broke through police cordons to chase the papal vehicle as it sped toward the government palace. The motorcade did not slow. Leo leaned toward the open window, blessing spectators who choked intersections across central Lima.

Stepping off his chartered aircraft at Jorge Chávez International Airport, the Chicago-born pontiff embraced President Keiko Fujimori and accepted flowers from two children. He then walked into the palace courtyard, where he stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Fujimori and a children's choir to sing the Peruvian national anthem.

"Today I understand how much of this land remains with me and how much of my own story also belongs to you," Leo told Fujimori and gathered state ministers. "That is why I can tell you, with deep gratitude, that I am also returning to my homeland."

Applause swept the courtyard.

Born Robert Prevost, the pontiff holds dual citizenship in the United States and Peru, making him the first pope from either country. He obtained Peruvian nationality in 2015 after spending more than two decades in the nation as a missionary priest and later as a bishop. That long tenure forged an unusually direct bond with the population.

"We love him so much because he's worked here, he knows our sufferings, he knows it all," said 85-year-old Evelina Cruz, clutching a handmade stuffed likeness of the pontiff sewn by her niece.

Street Tributes and Northern Itinerary

The arrival marks the climax of Leo's three-nation South American tour. Nationwide preparations had reached a fever pitch days before his plane touched tarmac. Municipal authorities in the port city of El Callao unveiled a 14-metre statue of the pontiff, while Lima cafes whipped milk foam into portraits of his face on morning cappuccinos.

Former colleagues remembered his pastoral years with fierce loyalty.

"My heart is so excited that it makes me want to cry with joy," said Zuly Castillo, who served as Leo's personal secretary when he ran the Diocese of Chiclayo in northern Peru.

Outside the presidential palace gates, hundreds sang hymns and chanted "Long live Christ!" through the afternoon. Academic observers framed the scene as unprecedented in modern Latin American church history.

Leo departs Lima on Friday for Chiclayo, where artists have already painted murals across public squares and merchants are hawking papal bobbleheads, baseball caps, and printed shirts. He will also travel to Zaña to pray at the sanctuary of St Turibius of Mogrovejo, a historic hub of Afro-Peruvian culture where Leo frequently made private pilgrimages during his years in the episcopate.

Economic Divides and Rising Crime

Leo enters a fractured country. Peru's population of 34 million grapples with deep financial insecurity, compounding political turbulence, and environmental hazards sparked by El Niño weather patterns. Official figures show the national monetary poverty rate hit 25.7% in 2025.

Morello pointed to an economy split along stark class lines: a small urban elite commands wealth comparable to prosperous American states, while millions survive without reliable financial safety nets despite solid headline economic data. Street crime and insecurity have surged in tandem. While the deadly Maoist insurgency run by the Shining Path during the 1980s and 1990s has receded, violent street gangs now dominate public anxiety.

All eyes now turn to Thursday morning, when Pope Leo takes the podium outside Lima's cathedral for a major open-air address detailing the moral and political struggles dictating Peru's future.