Peru’s president José María Balcázar stated on Sunday, June 7, that Pope Leo XIV will arrive in the country on November 10. When asked from the northern city of Chiclayo about the date of the Holy Father’s trip, the president told RPP the visit “is scheduled to begin on November 10.” The Vatican has not yet made an official announcement of the apostolic visit, which could also include stops in Uruguay and Argentina.
In April this year, Cardinal Daniel Sturla, Archbishop of Montevideo, said the Holy Father could visit Uruguay between “the end of November and the beginning of December.”
Pope Leo XIV, born Robert Prevost, arrived in Peru as a missionary in Chulucanas, Piura, in 1985 and stayed until 1986. He returned in 1988 to Trujillo, also in northern Peru, where he served until 1999 as a teacher, Augustinian superior, director of studies, and rector of the San Carlos and San Marcelo Seminary. After two terms as superior general of the Augustinians in Rome, Pope Francis appointed him Apostolic Administrator of Chiclayo in November 2014. He became bishop of that diocese in September 2015 and acquired Peruvian nationality the same year. In April 2020 he was appointed Apostolic Administrator of Callao, serving one year. Bishop Prevost remained in Peru until January 2023, when he was called to the Vatican as head of the Dicastery for Bishops.