Pope Leo XIV departs for South America on 12-day tour, three weeks after lung cancer surgery
Pope Leo XIV waves as he boards the papal plane at Rome's Fiumicino Airport on Nov. 6, 2026 (OSV News photo by Remo Casilli/Reuters)Pope Leo XIV departed Rome on Friday morning for a 12-day trip to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru — the longest international journey of his pontificate — just 24 days after undergoing surgery for lung cancer. The chartered ITA Airways plane took off from Fiumicino Airport at 7:05 a.m. Rome time, beginning a tour the Vatican calls one of the most demanding taken by a Catholic leader in decades.
The 13-and-a-half-hour flight was due to land in Montevideo, Uruguay, at 4:30 p.m. local time (2:30 p.m. EST). Over the next 12 days, the 71-year-old pope is scheduled to travel about 31,000 kilometers (19,000 miles) across 10 cities, take 14 flights — including two by helicopter — give 36 speeches and take part in around 50 events, before returning to Rome on the morning of November 17.
Leo underwent surgery on October 13 to remove the lower lobe of his right lung, where doctors found localized lung adenocarcinoma, the most common form of lung cancer. His doctors have said the disease was localized and that he needs no further treatment. Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni told journalists on November 3 that the pope is clinically fit to travel, and the Vatican said this week that he has completely healed from the operation and that no changes were made to the schedule to account for his recent hospitalization.
“He is clinically fit to undertake this trip,” Bruni said. Maria Montserrat Alvarado, prefect of the Vatican's Dicastery for Communication, said the pope's doctors “are very confident and he'll have plenty of medical care on board should something happen. But we don't see that in his prognosis.” Medical experts told Reuters that the decision by Leo's doctors to clear him to fly indicated the risk of complications was low, and that his operated lung had fully expanded. CNN reported that a pulmonologist put the risk of a medical emergency during the trip as low, while noting it could include a collapsed lung or blood clots.
The trip is a homecoming as much as a state visit. It is the first visit to Latin America since Leo's election as pope, and it brings him back to the continent that shaped his life and ministry — first as an Augustinian missionary priest, then as a bishop in Peru, where he served for nearly two decades and where he will spend the final and longest leg of the journey. He first arrived in Peru as a missionary in 1985 and served as bishop of Chiclayo from 2015 to 2023. He holds Peruvian citizenship.
The pope starts in Uruguay, the most secular country in Latin America and the least Catholic of the three he will visit. It is the first papal visit there since St. John Paul II's in 1988. Over three days he will visit Montevideo, the capital; Paysandú, on the border with Argentina; and Florida, home to the National Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Thirty-Three, where he will celebrate Mass on November 8, the date of the annual national pilgrimage to the Marian shrine. His Uruguay program also includes a visit to a neighborhood plagued by gang violence.
In Argentina, where he arrives on the afternoon of November 8, he steps into the land of his predecessor, Pope Francis — the Argentine pontiff who never visited his homeland as pope. The last papal visit to Argentina was St. John Paul II's in 1987. Leo will visit Buenos Aires, Córdoba and Luján, where he will celebrate Mass at the Shrine of Our Lady of Luján, Argentina's patroness and one of its leading pilgrimage sites.
The journey ends with six days in Peru, including a two-day stay in Chiclayo, plus Lima, Cusco and Pucallpa, a city on the Ucayali River in the Amazon rainforest. The itinerary takes him to Cusco, more than 11,000 feet above sea level, where there is about 35 percent less oxygen per breath, and includes a military helicopter flight on November 14 to the Andes mountain town of Santa Cruz de Succhabamba. Across the 12 days he will celebrate nine public Masses, visit seven cathedrals and preside over two stadium prayer vigils.
Before leaving, the pope asked for prayers for the journey at his November 4 general audience. “I entrust myself to your prayers, that this trip may strengthen faith, renew hope, rekindle the fire of charity, and serve as an impetus to continue proclaiming the Gospel with joy,” he said.
Sources: The Associated Press, “After cancer surgery, Pope Leo embarks on Latin America trip” (Nov. 6, 2026); Reuters, “Pope Leo starts South America 'homecoming' tour a month after lung surgery” (Nov. 6, 2026); CNN, “Pope Leo's Latin America trip will take him above 11,000 feet, weeks after lung cancer surgery” (Nov. 6, 2026); OSV News via Catholic Courier, “Pope Leo XIV departs for 12 day tour of South America” (Nov. 6, 2026).
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