Peruvian president outlines plans for papal visit in November

José María Balcázar described his meeting with Pope Leo as ‘magnificent and friendly’, pointing out that he is himself a ‘congressman for Lambayeque, Chiclayo’, the city where the Pope lived from 2015 to 2023.

Peru’s President José María Balcázar said Pope Leo XIV gave him “permission” to confirm to reporters the Pope’s intention to visit five cities in the country – Lima, Chiclayo, Piura, Pucallpa and Cusco – during the first half of November.

“He has confirmed to us that he will be in Peru in the first half of November. From Lima, he will go to Chiclayo, from Chiclayo to Piura, from Piura to Pucallpa, in the jungle, and he would also visit Cusco,” he said, following a private meeting with the Pope at the Vatican on Thursday.

The president noted that the team responsible for organising papal flights will ultimately determine the route.

He also did not rule out a possible stop in Arequipa: “As [Pope Leo] will handle it, according to his team of cardinals and the way he plans everything, it’s possible that he could also be in Arequipa.”

Balcázar also said he offered the Pope several suggestions. Among them, he proposed that after his visit to Chiclayo, he could travel by helicopter “to the Andean area of Incahuasi and Cañaris, which is a very poor, Quechua-speaking region that he knows very well”.

“We have offered him a helicopter to reach any place he wishes quickly, because he wants to cover as many small towns as possible in the north and also in the jungle and Cusco,” he told reporters after his private audience with the Pope.

The president described the meeting as “magnificent and friendly”, pointing out that he is himself a “congressman for Lambayeque, Chiclayo”, the city where the Pope lived from 2015 to 2023.

“We have known each other before,” he explained, referring to the reason why the private audience lasted “almost two hours”.

Balcázar’s visit coincided with the vote count from the second round of Peru’s presidential elections. According to the president, they discussed the country’s political situation, especially the need for the transition of power after the election to be “as orderly as possible, without major conflicts, and for the loser to recognise the winner”.

He added that the Pope “is concerned that we are still in the middle of this vote”. The official proclamation of the winner is expected in mid-July.

During the meeting, they also discussed the encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, published on 25 May, which focuses on issues such as artificial intelligence and human rights. “We went through his entire encyclical, which, of course, I have read, and what comes through is a powerful call to the common good,” he said.

They also spoke about migration. Balcázar explained that Pope Leo is “aware that there are criminals who migrate from one country to another”, but at the same time is “even more aware that we should not persecute migrants moving from one country to another, because the world has always been marked by migration everywhere, and those migrants must be given the right to life, especially, as he emphasises, in a very important chapter on human rights”.

“Those human rights must have concrete substance, not just a lyrical declaration, but must be translated into material and objective realities,” he said.

After leaving the Apostolic Palace around 1 p.m. Rome time, the president went to the Vatican Gardens, where he stopped to pray before the image of St Rose of Lima, enthroned in a historic ceremony presided over by the Pope in January.

According to the Holy See, in a subsequent meeting with the Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and the secretary for relations with states and international organisations, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, “satisfaction” was expressed over the good relations between the Holy See and Peru, along with a desire to strengthen them further.

They also discussed “matters of common interest, including socioeconomic developments, illegal mining activity, the promotion of the common good and dialogue, and efforts to foster social cohesion”.

Likewise, “there was an exchange of views on the regional and international sociopolitical situation, with particular attention to migration, organised crime and the repercussions of conflicts”.

At the beginning of June, Balcázar said Pope Leo would visit Peru on 10 November, though the Holy See has yet to confirm the final itinerary.

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