Pope Leo XIV directs the eyes of the world to the Catholic Church in Peru

On May 8, 2025 he has been recorded in history as the day on which Leo XIV, the first Pope born in the United States and Peruvian adoption, was chosen as the successor of San Pedro.

It was a pleasant surprise for the world – which now looks at the South American nation – and also for the faithful who heard him say, from the balcony of the Basilica of San Pedro and in perfect Spanish, who remembered his “beloved diocese of Chiclayo” in Peru, where the people have shared their faith with him and gives everything “to continue being a faithful church of Jesus Christ.”

“Peru is key,” says a trend in social networks after Cardinal Robert Prevost as Pope, but Peru is, above all, a Catholic country. According to the last national census, carried out in 2017, 76% of the population, over 12, professes the Catholic religion, approximately 17.6 million people.

The Lord of Miracles

Peru is also the land of the Lord of Miracles, the most important Peruvian devotion and a symbol of Peruanity throughout the world, so much so that every year, at the end of October, a procession of thousands of people reaches the Plaza de San Pedro in the Vatican.

The Lord of Miracles, also called Christ of Pachacamilla, Christ Purple or Christ Moreno is an image of Jesus Christ painted on an adobe wall in the seventeenth century and has supported the onslaught of several earthquakes, without suffering damage. It is currently preserved in the Church of Las Nazarenas in the Historic Center of Lima.

A replica of this Christ comes out in procession every year in October in the capital and in different parts of the country, accompanied in Lima by about a million faithful on the central days (October 18 and 28), and for several hundred thousand in other places on the planet.

In 2023, a few days before the now Pope Leo XIV traveled to Rome to assume the position of prefect of the Dicasterio for the bishops in the Vatican, a Mass was held in the Cathedral of Chiclayo and the Brotherhood of the Lord of Miracles in that city presented a picture of the sacred imagethat the Holy Father led to the eternal city and that he placed on the desk of his office.

Linked to this religious devotion, how could it be otherwise – now that Peru is a gastronomic destination with Centralthe best restaurant in the world according to the List of the 50 best (The 50 best– There is the nougat of Doña Pepa, a traditional sweet that created Josefa Marmanillo, an Afro -Peruvian woman who thanked the lord of the miracles to have cured her of a disease she suffered.

THE EARTH “Ensantada”

Peru is also the cradle of several saints, hence the expression used by Pope Francis in 2018 during his visit to the country, when he said that he was in a “scheduled land”, by the children of the Church elevated to the altars such as Santa Rosa de Lima (1586-1617), the first Saint of America and perhaps the most famous of all Peruvian saints, canonized in 1671 and whose devotion reaches the Philippines.

San Martín de Porres, contemporary with Santa Rosa de Lima and Dominico like her, lived between 1579 and 1639, served as a goalkeeper of a Dominican convent and many miraculous stories are told about him such as those of his bilocation power. It was canonized in 1962.

Although he is not Peruvian by birth (he was born in Majorga, Spain), Santo Toribio de Mogrovejo (1538 – 1606) consecrated God and gave everything as Archbishop of Lima in his defense by the most helpless and exploited in the time of the Viceroyalty of Peru. He is the patron of the Latin American episcopate and was canonized in 1726.

San Juan Macías (1545 – 1685) was a Dominican missionary, who would be known as the “purgatory thief” because he prayed a lot for the deceased, asking that they reach heaven. It was elevated to the altars in 1975.

San Francisco Solano (1549 – 1610) consecrated his life to the evangelization of the native peoples of America and the spiritual accompaniment of those who arrived, like him, with the desire to share the good news of the Gospel. He was canonized on December 27, 1726.

The Beata Sister Ana de los Ángeles (1602-1686), a Peruvian religious of the Order of Preachers, who, influenced by Santa Catalina de Siena consecrated her life to the contemplative prayer in a monastery in Arequipa; to the south of Peru; And the Sister Aguchita martyr, killed by the terrorists of the Shining Path in 1990, beatified in a Mass presided by the Venezuelan cardinal Baltazar Porras in 2022, are two other witnesses of the faith in Peru.

The Catholic Church in Peru and Robert Prevost

Peru has a total extension of 1,285,216 kilometers, distributed in 46 jurisdictions Ecclesiastics: 7 Archdiocese, 21 diocese, 10 prelatures and 8 vicariates. In this vast territory, the Catholic Church works to deal with the many challenges such as poverty, drug trafficking, sicariato, illegal mining, human trafficking and political chaos, among others.

Robert Prevost first arrived in Peru in 1985, specifically to the prelature – now Diocese – of Chulucanas, the year in which the deceased President Alan García, who at the end of his first government left the country in a very serious economic crisis assumed power.

Shortly after Pope Leo XVI returned to the United States to return to Peru again in 1988, now to the Archdiocese of Trujillo, where he was responsible for training the Augustinians and where he was a professor at the Seminary of San Carlos and San Marcelo, in addition to fulfilling various pastoral tasks in several local parishes until 1999.

He was then a provincial prior in Chicago and also served, in two periods, as a prior general of the Augustinians. In 2014 he returned to Peru, now to Chiclayo, where he was first apostolic administrator and then Bishop, also in the north of the country.

With the intention of making clear its commitment to the land of Machu Picchu, one of the seven wonders of the world, the Holy Father decided to assume Peruvian nationality in 2015 and have, like all Peruvians over 18, the classic DNI (National Identity Document) of blue.

In Chiclayo, he distinguished himself by intense apostolic and evangelizing work in favor of family and life. In March 2015, for example, he published a tweet in which he stated: “March for life in Chiclayo.Let’s defend human life at all times!”.

However, not everything was positive, since he had to deal with accusations of cover -up of abuses that would have been perpetrated by a priest, an issue that the current bishop of Chiclayo responded on Friday, Mons. Edinson Farfán, who said that “Pope Leo XIV has been the most sensitive in the Peruvian Church” before these cases and “He has heard us, he has allowed us to do us justice.

Robert Prevost also served as Apostolic Administrator of Callao and vice president of the Peruvian Episcopal Conference, where the deputy secretary, Fr. Guillermo Inca, keeps a pleasant memory of him: “The emotion of having heard the name of Cardinal Robert Prevost as Pope, pastor of the Universal Church, was really indescribable, an unforgettable moment.”

“We have had many occasions to be able to talk and I have been able to discover his prudence, his perseverance, his tenacity and that simplicity that characterizes him, but always with a lot of depth to resolve any subject, any situation, however delicate he is,” added the priest in statements to ACI Press.

And yes Peru has everything, now also the Pope, the successor of St. Peter who left Chicago to go to Chiclayo and who is now the bishop of Rome, the pastor of the Universal Church and Vicar of Christ on earth.