Pope tells of his ‘joy to be home’ as he returns to city where he was bishop
A million people turned out to greet Pope Leo as he arrived in Chiclayo in northern Peru.
Pope Leo XIV returned on Friday to his beloved former diocese of Chiclayo and said it was a “joy” to be home, an emotional homecoming that underscored his love for his Peruvian flock and their pride that their shepherd now runs the Catholic Church.
The pontiff, known here as “Padre Roberto”, arrived at Chiclayo’s airport on the Pacific coast and immediately headed to a vast, dusty field outside Chiclayo for his first Mass on Peruvian soil.
The Vatican estimated 1.0 million people had lined his motorcade route to the Mass and that 500,000 attended.
They cheered wildly when Leo arrived and looped through the crowd in his popemobile, under a scorching sun and temperatures of 31C.
“What a joy it is to return to Chiclayo,” Leo said at the start of his homily.
“It is a blessing for me to be with you once again,” he said, thanking the faithful especially for their prayers during his recent hospital admission for lung cancer.
He declared that, “with God’s help, I am overcoming” the health scare.
Chiclayo, population 700,000, is the commercial hub of Peru’s northern Pacific coast.
But much of the world heard about it on the night of Leo’s election, May 8 2025, when he gave Chiclayo a shoutout, in Spanish, from the loggia of St Peter’s Basilica.
And on Friday, Chiclayo welcomed its former shepherd home.
“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.”
The former Robert Prevost spent two decades as a missionary priest and bishop in Peru and credits the place and its people with teaching him how to be a shepherd.
Pope Francis sent the Chicago-born Augustinian to take over as bishop of Chiclayo in 2014 and he stayed until Francis summoned him to Rome in 2023 to run the Vatican’s bishops’ office – a move which possibly signalled that Francis saw the American as a potential successor.