Pope Leo XIV to travel 19,000 miles on 14 flights during trip to Peru, Argentina, and Uruguay

ROME (OSV News) — Pope Leo XIV will travel more than 19,000 miles on 14 flights during a November trip to Peru, Argentina and Uruguay, according to the full schedule the Vatican released Sept. 21.

The Nov. 6-17 trip will be the first papal visit to Latin America of Pope Leo’s pontificate and his longest international journey to date. Over 12 days, he will celebrate nine public Masses, visit seven cathedrals and preside over two stadium prayer vigils. The trip culminates with a return to Chiclayo, Peru, where he served as bishop from 2015 to 2023.

The journey begins Nov. 6 with a flight of more than 14 hours and 6,900 miles from Rome to Montevideo, Uruguay. The return flight from Lima, Peru, to Rome covers 6,700 miles. In between, the pope will travel to a new destination nearly every day, including a 2,200-mile flight from Buenos Aires to Lima and a military helicopter flight Nov. 14 to the Andes mountain town of Santa Cruz de Succhabamba, Peru.

By comparison, Pope Leo traveled 11,000 miles over 11 days during his trip to Algeria, Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea earlier this year.

In addition to the detailed schedule, the Vatican also released the motto and logo for each of the three countries.

— Uruguay (Nov. 6-8): ‘I bring you news of great joy’ —

Uruguay will be the pope’s first stop. Christians make up 44% of the population, the lowest share in Latin America, according to the Pew Research Center. It will be the first papal visit there since St. John Paul II’s in 1988.

The motto is drawn from the angel’s announcement to the shepherds of Bethlehem in the Gospel of Luke, “I bring you news of great joy.”

Pope Leo will visit Montevideo, the capital and largest city; Paysandú, a cultural and economic hub on the border with Argentina; and Florida, home to the National Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Thirty-Three.

In Montevideo, he will visit the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception and Sts. Philip and James and lead a prayer vigil at a stadium. He will celebrate an outdoor Mass in París Londres Park in Paysandú.

The logo for the visit features Our Lady of the Thirty-Three, Uruguay’s patroness, reflecting the visit’s culminating moment: a Mass at the National Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Thirty-Three on Nov. 8, the date of the annual national pilgrimage there.

— Argentina (Nov. 8-11): ‘Welcome everyone. Go and proclaim’ —

The second leg of the trip will be Argentina, the homeland of Pope Francis, who served as archbishop of Buenos Aires before becoming pope, but never returned during his pontificate. About 58% of Argentine adults identify as Catholic, according to Pew. St. John Paul II made the last papal visit in 1987, nearly four decades ago.

Pope Leo will visit Buenos Aires; Córdoba, the country’s second-largest city; and Luján, where he will celebrate Mass at the Shrine of Our Lady of Luján, Argentina’s patroness and one of its leading pilgrimage sites.

He will also offer Mass in the center of Buenos Aires at the Monument of the Spanish and pray with local Catholics in the capital city’s Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity, as well as celebrate an outdoor Mass in on the grounds of the Military Aviation School in Córdoba, where he will also visit the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption.

The logo shows a wreath of small, stylized human figures in shades of Argentine sky blue, representing a society where everyone is welcomed and no one is excluded, with Christ at the center. The Spanish motto, “Bienvenidos todos. Vayan y anuncien,” is meant to express openness, harmony in diversity, encounter and proclamation, according to the Vatican.

— Peru (Nov. 11-17): ‘Let us open our hearts’ —

The final and longest leg is a homecoming for Pope Leo in Peru, where he first arrived as an Augustinian missionary in 1985. He was appointed apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Chiclayo in 2014 and later became its bishop. He obtained Peruvian citizenship in 2015.

Pope Leo will visit Lima, the capital and largest city; Chiclayo; Cusco, the former Inca capital in the Andes; and Pucallpa, a city on the Ucayali River in the Amazon rainforest that has long been a center of Catholic missionary outreach.

He will celebrate four Masses: at an open space near the “Pampas de Pimentel” in Chiclayo; in Santa Cruz de Succhabamba, at an altitude of more than 6,000 feet in the Andes; at a sports complex in Pucallpa; and at the “Las Palmas Air Base” in Callao outside of Lima.

The logo shows Pope Leo surrounded by Peruvian saints, in front of a map of Peru enclosed in a large red heart. The saints depicted are St. Rose of Lima, St. Turibius of Mogrovejo, St. Martin de Porres, St. Francis Solano and St. John Macias. The heart represents the motto, “Let us open our hearts,” an invitation to open one’s heart to God, to others and to the future with hope, expressing welcome for the successor of St. Peter with faith, unity, and a missionary spirit.

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