Pope Leo XIV celebrates Mass in the Peruvian Andes
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on SABC News
Pope Leo XIV on Saturday flew by helicopter to Santa Cruz de Succhabamba, an Andean town of fewer than 6,000 inhabitants where he was known as bishop of Chiclayo. It was the final, and most personal, stage of a three-country tour that drew around 12 million people, according to SABC News.
Pope Leo XIV celebrated Mass on Saturday in Santa Cruz de Succhabamba, a small Andean town of fewer than 6,000 inhabitants in the Cajamarca department, according to SABC News. The Vatican estimates the crowd at 20,000 people, fewer than at other stops on the tour.
Leo XIV, born in Chicago, was Bishop of Chiclayo, a large city four hours' drive away, from 2015 to 2023. To reach Santa Cruz, he arrived by helicopter, instead of the winding mountain roads he often took. The local priest Kevin Noriega, who was ordained in 2018 by the future pope, then known as Robert Prevost, says residents are waiting for their former bishop, now the Holy Father.
This stop marks the end, and the most personal, of a twelve-day tour of South America, which drew some 12 million people across three countries. Cajamarca is one of the poorest regions of Peru, where up to 40% of residents live in poverty, according to the national statistics office.
His visit to Argentina had ended on 11 November, after a Mass in Córdoba attended by 650,000 faithful on 10 November. On the same day as the Andean Mass, he also celebrated an Amazonian Mass in Pucallpa, in Peru.
