Pope Leo leaves on emotional South America tour weeks after surgery

Pope Leo XIV embarked on a South American tour on Friday, marking an emotionally significant reunion with the continent that shaped his priesthood, three weeks after he underwent lung cancer surgery. The 71-year-old head of the Catholic Church will visit Uruguay, Argentina, and Peru within a week, a rare foreign trip of such magnitude in recent decades.

During this trip, the Pope will meet political leaders, prisoners, the poor, and old friends. A smiling Leo waved to onlookers as he boarded his plane from Rome's Fiumicino airport under overcast skies. The Church's first US-born Pope served as a missionary in Peru for nearly two decades, forming a deep attachment to the continent. Pope Leo expressed his eagerness to return to those countries "so dear to me."

The Pope's trip aims to strengthen faith, renew hope, and rekindle the fire of charity in countries grappling with challenges such as rising inequality, violence, demographic declines, and the waning influence of Catholicism. Despite his October 13th surgery to remove a cancerous tumor, doctors have given him the all-clear to travel, with no special medical measures required beyond standard care for papal trips.

The Pope's itinerary begins in Uruguay, Latin America's most secular and wealthiest country, where a tight security operation involving around 5,000 police officers and 1,000 soldiers is in place. In Montevideo, Leo will be driven along the waterfront promenade in a custom-made popemobile before meeting President Yamandú Orsi and receiving the city's keys.

Local Cardinal Daniel Sturla anticipates widespread interest in the Pope's visit, with tickets for masses quickly selling out in some regions. The liberal nation's stance on issues like same-sex marriage, abortion, and euthanasia may prompt the Pope to advocate for protecting life and traditional family values.

Uruguay, grappling with the highest suicide rate in Latin America, may see the Pope addressing mental health, especially during his visit to the Casavalle neighborhood known for poverty and extreme violence. The Pope's South American journey concludes in Peru, a country experiencing Pope fever. Merchandise with his image is sold, Leo bread is available in bakeries, and inmates in a women's prison are crafting dolls in his likeness.

A towering 14-meter (46-foot) statue of Leo has been erected in Callao, the port city where he will visit. The trip will also take the Pope to the former Inca capital of Cusco and the Amazon rainforest, where he'll revisit his past life as Robert Francis Prevost and meet with priests from his old diocese of Chiclayo.