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Pope Leo XIV, head of state of Vatican City, left Rome this morning on a 12-day tour of Uruguay, Argentina and Peru.
The 71-year-old pontiff had surgery at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital last month for a mass in his lung and was earlier reported as not needing further oncological, or cancer, treatment. He set out on his long and demanding South American journey with a morning departure.
The pope left Rome’s Fiumicino Airport at 7:05 a.m. local time (6:05 a.m. GMT) on an Airbus A330 chartered from ITA Airways, bound for Uruguay, the first leg of the tour. Officials saw him off at the airport.
Pope Leo XIV will visit Uruguay first, followed by Argentina, the homeland of his predecessor, Pope Francis, and finally Peru, where he worked as a missionary for many years and holds citizenship. He will stop in 10 cities on the continent and travel more than 31,000 kilometers (19,262.51 miles) in total.
The 12-day trip is the longest and farthest journey of Leo XIV’s papacy so far.
After a 13-hour flight, the pope is expected to arrive in Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay. Leo XIV will make the first papal visit to Uruguay since John Paul II’s visit in 1988.
After two days in Uruguay, the pope will travel to Argentina, the second stop of his trip, on Nov. 8. He will be the first pope to visit the country since John Paul II’s visit in 1987.
The Argentina leg carries special significance as the homeland of Pope Francis. Vatican journalists note that Francis never returned to Argentina during his papacy, which makes Leo XIV’s visit especially notable.
The visit to Peru is seen as a kind of homecoming for Leo XIV, who was born in the United States and served as a missionary in the country for about 20 years.
During the tour, the pope will also meet victims of sexual abuse and violence within the Church, one of the major problems facing the Catholic Church. Officials from the Vatican Press Office said at a briefing earlier this week that, as during his earlier visits to Spain and France, the pope will express his closeness to the victims.
The press office officials also confirmed that the pope, who underwent serious surgery three weeks ago and was diagnosed with lung cancer, is in very good health, and that the South America tour will go ahead as it was planned before the operation.
Robert Francis Prevost, then a U.S. cardinal, was elected pope at the conclave, the meeting of cardinals that elects a new pope, held on May 8, 2025, and took the name Leo XIV.
Leo XIV made his first foreign trip as pope to Türkiye and Lebanon in November 2025. This year, he has visited the Principality of Monaco in March, Algeria, Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea in April, Spain in June, San Marino in August and, most recently, France in September.
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