Pope Leo XIV has left Rome on a 12-day, three-nation tour of South America, less than a month after lung cancer surgery that had cast doubt on whether the trip would happen at all.
The 71-year-old will visit Uruguay, Argentina and Peru over roughly 19,000 miles, with a dozen flights, two helicopter rides and nine Masses. It is the longest and farthest journey of his pontificate and one of the most grueling any Catholic leader has attempted in decades.
Leo was treated for lung adenocarcinoma, the most common form of lung cancer. Doctors have said the disease was localized and needs no further treatment, and Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni said no extra medical measures would be required on the road.
The Vatican's new communications chief said Leo had completed the 14-day convalescence doctors required after his Oct. 13 operation and was eager to travel. Medical care will be on board, she said, though nothing in his prognosis or behavior suggests it will be needed.
The Vatican has said Leo will meet several times with survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy, without offering details. Bruni said the pope would also speak about environmental destruction, arms trafficking and political instability across the region.
A secular first stop
Leo was due to land in Montevideo after a flight of 13 and a half hours, the first papal visit to Uruguay since 1988. He was scheduled to meet President Yamandú Orsi, address government officials and diplomats, and close the day with vespers at the city's cathedral.
His three days in Uruguay include a stop in a neighborhood plagued by gang violence and a Mass in Paysandú, about 230 miles from the capital. On Sunday he celebrates Mass in the city of Florida for the Nov. 8 feast of the Virgin of the Thirty-three, a small wooden icon tied to the country's independence movement.
Uruguay is the region's most secular nation. It was the first country to legalize recreational marijuana, the second in Latin America to decriminalize abortion and, in October 2025, the first in the region to approve assisted dying over church opposition. Leo is expected to restate the church's stance against abortion and euthanasia.
Uruguayan church officials have marveled at the enthusiasm, with tickets to a prayer vigil at Montevideo's Centenario Stadium reportedly gone within two days. Guzmán Carriquiry, a Uruguayan who once led the Vatican's pontifical commission for Latin America, said he believes the pope will stir questions of meaning and faith.
Andrew Chesnut, chair of Catholic studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, said he expected a warm welcome but doubted it would bring lasting change in church attendance.
If the overarching goal is trying to revitalize Catholicism in the most Catholic region on Earth, Uruguay is kind of a lost cause, and it has been for decades.
Andrew Chesnut, chair of Catholic studies at Virginia Commonwealth University
Argentina, then home to Peru
Leo then spends three days in Argentina, where he is expected to meet President Javier Milei, a close ally of President Donald Trump. No pope has visited since John Paul II in 1987; Leo's Argentine-born predecessor, Francis, declined repeated invitations to return.
The largest crowds are expected during six days in Peru, where the Chicago-born pope holds citizenship and spent two decades as a missionary priest and bishop. After Lima, he will visit his former diocese of Chiclayo, which he led from 2014 until 2023, and make several high-altitude stops in the Andes.
