Faith

Pope Leo XIV returns to Chiclayo for Mass before 500,000: 'What a joy it is to be home'

Chiclayo, Peru • November 13, 2026 • By Press Pass USA

Pope Leo XIV waves from the popemobile to a huge crowd in Chiclayo, Peru, with a Peruvian flag in the foreground

Photo: Daniel Ibáñez / EWTN

Pope Leo XIV returned Friday to Chiclayo, the Peruvian diocese he led for eight years, celebrating an outdoor Mass before about 500,000 people on a dusty plain outside the city — with about a million more lining the streets along his motorcade route to welcome their former bishop home.

"What a joy it is to return to Chiclayo! It is a blessing for me to be with you once again," Leo said at the start of his homily at the Pampas de Pimentel, thanking the faithful especially for their prayers during his recent hospitalization for lung cancer. "With God's help, I am overcoming," he said — exactly one month after surgery in which the lower lobe of his right lung was removed.

The pope's plane touched down at the Chiclayo Air Base just after 9 a.m. after a 90-minute flight from Lima, where millions had welcomed him earlier in the week. He then rode through the city to the Mass site as crowds holding balloons, handmade signs and religious statues cheered under a scorching sun, with temperatures reaching 31 degrees Celsius (88 degrees Fahrenheit). The Vatican estimated 1 million people lined the route and 500,000 attended the liturgy.

In his homily, Leo reflected on the "urgent and binding duty of every baptized person to proclaim the Gospel." "We must place Jesus Christ at the center, both of our proclamation and of our existence," he said. "All Christians, whether ordained ministers or lay faithful — regardless of the degree of formation we have received in the faith — are missionary disciples." For most lay people, he said, evangelization takes the form of "the witness of an authentically Christian and coherent life," and good works are part of it, "because the proclamation of the faith is linked to charity and the care of those most in need."

As the Mass ended, the crowd erupted in a chant that summed up the city's pride in its former shepherd: "El papa es Chiclayano!" — "The pope is Chiclayano!" Bishop Edinson Edgardo Farfán Córdova, the current bishop of Chiclayo, told Leo his presence held "special meaning" for the diocese. "Your presence allows us to thank God for all that you sowed among us," he said, thanking the pope for his witness "in favor of the poorest and most vulnerable."

The homecoming capped a week in which the normally reserved 71-year-old pope has seemed visibly moved — at turns giddy and close to tears — since arriving in Peru on Wednesday. Born in Chicago as Robert Prevost, he spent about two decades as a missionary in Peru and served as bishop of Chiclayo from 2015 to 2023. Much of the world first heard of the city on the night of his election, May 8, 2025, when he gave Chiclayo a shoutout in Spanish from the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica.

"I'm elated. He has decided to return to Chiclayo and we have him here, with us — home," said Julie Albujar, who woke before dawn with her sister to travel to the Mass site, where they were tasked with taking the collection. "This is a party and it's a sign of our faith and our love for the pope."

After the Mass, Leo made a private visit to the Chapel of St. Óscar Romero. In the afternoon he was scheduled to meet clergy, religious, seminarians and lay leaders at the Shrine of Our Lady of Peace and to give a speech at the Santo Toribio de Mogrovejo Catholic University, where he once served as chancellor. He remains in the Chiclayo area until Saturday as part of his 12-day South America tour, which runs through November 17.

Sources: The Associated Press, "Pope says it's a 'joy' to be home as Peru's Chiclayo welcomes back its former shepherd" (Nov. 13, 2026, full text verified); OSV News via The Catholic Telegraph, "Pope Leo XIV's Mass in Chiclayo an emotional reunion with his 'beloved' diocese" (Nov. 13, 2026, full text verified); Catholic World Report, "Pope Leo XIV, back in his former diocese, says all Christians are called to be missionaries" (Nov. 13, 2026, full text verified); Holy See Press Office, "Holy Mass at the 'Pampas de Pimentel'" (Nov. 13, 2026). Crowd figures are Vatican estimates.