On Friday, Pope Leo held the central event of his 12-day South America tour: an outdoor Mass in northern Peru. To people who once knew him as their bishop, he said, in The Irish Times account, that he thanked God he was alive to see them.

People came on foot and in lines of cars to an arid field outside Chiclayo. The pope rode in an open Popemobile through the Pampas de Pimentel, a desert park west of the city. The crowd waved white-and-yellow flags and held umbrellas against the Pacific-coast sun.

In the sermon he said it was a blessing to be in his adopted home exactly one month after lung cancer surgery, an operation many had feared would cancel the visit. He called it a “time of trial”. “As I look at your faces, a prayer of thanksgiving to the Lord arises in my heart for the blessing you have been and continue to be in my life,” he said.

The Vatican estimates that 1.5 million people were on the streets of Chiclayo and at the Mass. That is an estimate, not a headcount. In just over a week in South America, the paper puts the crowds at public events at about 12 million, also an estimate. On Wednesday, about three million gathered in Lima after his arrival from Argentina. He also visited Uruguay. These are, the Irish Times writes, the largest crowds of his 18-month papacy.

Leo is from Chicago and holds US and Peruvian citizenship. On Wednesday he said the country where he was a missionary for about 20 years, and bishop of Chiclayo from 2015 to 2023, was his homeland. On 13 October he had surgery for lung adenocarcinoma, the most common form of lung cancer. His doctors have said the tumour was localised, had not spread and that he will not need further treatment. The tour began 24 days after the operation.

Some people camped all night in the field. Others arrived early on Friday and walked part of the way because cars were lined up for miles. Vendors sold hats, small pope dolls and sweet Peruvian bread. Maria Esther Chozo Reyes, 76, took a 12-hour bus from Lima and arrived on Thursday afternoon. “He knows the people of Chiclayo, and he’s lived here; he’s made his mission here,” she said. “We really need his blessing.”

The pope arrived from Lima on Friday morning on a plane decorated with “#LeoXIVFliesHome” stickers. He stays in the area until Sunday for eight events, including a private dinner with the priests who once reported to him as bishop. Chiclayo, the country’s fourth-largest city, lives on agriculture and has about 620,000 people.

The photograph shows the interior of Chiclayo cathedral, not Friday’s Mass at the Pampas de Pimentel. Image: Danny Miguel Hoyos Wepio, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Source: Pope Leo speaks of ‘time of trial’ on return to Peru, The Irish Times.