Pope Leo Begins Latin America Trip Three Weeks After Lung Cancer Surgery

Pope Leo XIV is beginning a lengthy trip to Latin America just three weeks after surgery for lung cancer — a tour that includes a much-anticipated homecoming to Peru, where he was a priest for many years.

The Vatican says no extraordinary measures are being taken in relation to the Pope's health, describing him as a 71-year-old who has undergone an operation, not someone with a permanent medical condition.

It was Leo himself who revealed last month that doctors had discovered a tumour during a routine scan. The growth was removed along with the lower lobe of his right lung, and his medical team then confirmed the cancer had not spread.

At a briefing in Rome ahead of the trip, a spokeswoman stressed that Pope Leo had fantastic stamina and was extremely enthusiastic about the schedule, which he had personally confirmed with no changes.

Professor Massimo Faggioli of Villanova University said the Vatican's message with this trip is that that was a short episode and now things are back on track. The Pope has had a busy return to work since his surgery, making speeches and holding audiences in recent days, and seems in great shape.

The 12-day tour would be demanding for anyone, though. It incorporates multiple long-haul and local flights and covers thousands of miles, from the Amazon to the Andes.

The starting point will be Uruguay, where the number of Catholics has fallen away steeply in recent years and which is getting its first papal visit in four decades.

Leo then heads for Argentina, the homeland of his predecessor Pope Francis. Father Fernando Laguna, rector of Santa Maria Addolorata, Argentina's national church in Rome, said the visit is also a homage to Francis, who did not make it to Argentina as pope. When the visit by Pope Leo was announced, he said, it filled all of their hearts with joy, and he always thought the Pope would go despite his illness.

That leg of the journey, which includes meetings with heads of state as well as religious events, could be the most politically sensitive. President Javier Milei once called Pope Francis 'evil on earth' and a 'communist' for promoting a doctrine of social justice to help the poor, while Argentina's bishops have criticised Milei's harsh austerity measures and sweeping cuts to social spending. But Milei has already welcomed Pope Leo, writing in a post on X that Argentina awaits with immense joy. Millions are expected to turn out to greet him.

The highlight of the trip is saved for last, when Pope Leo reaches Peru — described by the Vatican as a return to his roots. As a spokeswoman put it, he knows these streets.

Born in the US, the then Robert Prevost spent almost 20 years in Peru, on and off, and even has Peruvian citizenship. That time is seen as fundamental to shaping his papacy.

His schedule includes a return to the diocese of Chiclayo, where he was ordained bishop in 2014 and remained until Francis moved him to the Vatican almost a decade later. He will also travel to Cusco, the former capital of the Inca Empire, to say Mass more than 3,000 metres above sea level, before heading to Pucallpa in the Amazon.

In all three countries, the Vatican says, the Pope will have meetings with survivors of clerical sexual abuse — an issue which clouded a 2018 visit to Chile and Peru by his predecessor.

Professor Faggioli sees this as how the papacy reconnects with Latin America after Francis, whose visits to the region were not always seamless. He believes Pope Leo has a strong sense of the unity of the Americas as one continent, and notes that democracies are in trouble there, so there are many things he can address. The big question then, he suggests, is the United States — whether the Pope will travel there while President Donald Trump is still in office.