Pope Leo XIV begins a 12-day tour of Uruguay, Argentina and Peru on Friday, his longest trip as pope, just three weeks after surgeons removed a cancerous tumour from his lung.

Key Points

  • The 12-day trip, from Nov 6 to 17, covers Uruguay, Argentina and Peru — the longest and farthest journey of his pontificate.
  • Surgery on Oct 13 removed a cancerous tumour from his right lung; his doctors say he needs no further treatment.
  • The schedule covers about 31,000 kilometres, with 14 flights including two helicopter rides, 36 speeches and around 50 events.
  • The trip climbs to Cusco, Peru, 3,400 metres above sea level, where the air holds about 35 per cent less oxygen.
  • Peru is a homecoming: Leo spent about 20 years there as a missionary and bishop, and he holds Peruvian citizenship.

What happened

The pope boarded his Rome-to-Montevideo flight on Friday morning — a journey of more than 13 hours — opening a 12-day visit that takes in Uruguay, Argentina and Peru before he returns to Rome on Nov 17. The Vatican announced the trip in August and published the full programme in September. The dates never changed, even after the pope’s cancer surgery last month. Uruguay hosts him until Sunday, Argentina follows until Nov 11, and Peru — where he lived and worked for about two decades — takes the final six days.

The operation took place on Oct 13, when surgeons at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital removed the lower lobe of his right lung after a small growth found during routine checks turned out to be adenocarcinoma, the most common form of lung cancer. His surgeon, Dr Stefano Margaritora, said there were “no clinical reasons” why the trip should not go ahead, and doctors later confirmed the pope needs no further treatment. He left hospital on Oct 17 and has since passed the 14-day recovery period his doctors had set. Days after the operation, he spoke by phone with Vladimir Putin from his hospital bed about the humanitarian situation in Oleshky, a Russian-occupied city in Ukraine.

The schedule is one of the most demanding of any papal trip in recent years: 14 flights, including two helicopter rides, 36 speeches and around 50 events across 10 cities, covering about 31,000 kilometres. The Vatican said no special medical arrangements have been made beyond the usual care on papal trips. The toughest test comes in Peru, where the 71-year-old will travel to Cusco, 3,400 metres above sea level, where each breath carries about 35 per cent less oxygen. Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said: “We’re not talking of a permanent condition. We’re talking about something that you heal from, because it is surgery.”

Why it matters

Latin America is still the heartland of the world’s largest Catholic population, but the share of people who call themselves Catholic has been falling steadily, even while belief in God stays strong. This trip is the pope’s answer to that drift — a bid to win back young people and to show a Church that stands with the poor, prisoners and Indigenous peoples. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, called the visit “a witness to unity and reconciliation”.

The journey is also deeply personal. Leo, born Robert Prevost in the United States, spent about 20 years in Peru as a missionary priest and bishop, led the diocese of Chiclayo from 2015 to 2023, and took Peruvian citizenship. His return to Chiclayo is expected to draw the trip’s biggest crowds, with as many as 1.5 million people expected at an open-air Mass on a desert plain outside the city on Nov 13. His message of unity lands at a moment when world leaders are meeting to push for calmer trade and steadier growth.

Argentina carries a different weight. No pope has visited the country in 39 years: his predecessor, Pope Francis, never went home during his 12-year papacy. Leo will meet President Javier Milei, who once called Francis “the representative of evil on Earth”, and will pray at the national shrine of Our Lady of Luján. In Uruguay, the most secular country in the region — where Christmas is officially “Family Day” and Holy Week is “Tourism Week” — he will visit a poor neighbourhood plagued by gang violence and meet left-wing President Yamandú Orsi.

What happens next

In Uruguay, Leo addresses political and diplomatic leaders in Montevideo on Friday, celebrates Mass in Paysandú on Saturday, and marks the feast of the Virgin of the Thirty-Three, Uruguay’s patroness, with a Mass in Florida on Sunday. He flies to Argentina on Sunday, where he will celebrate Mass in Buenos Aires and visit Córdoba and Luján before heading to Lima on Wednesday. In Peru he meets President Keiko Fujimori on his first day, returns to Chiclayo, travels by helicopter to the Andean village of Santa Cruz de Succhabamba, visits the Inca site of Saqsaywaman near Cusco, and goes into the Amazon at Pucallpa. He flies back to Rome on Nov 17.

Sources: Associated Press, CNN, Reuters, Religion News Service, Vatican News | 6 November 2026