From English to Inca... Pope speaks 7 languages, communicates directly with believers

Proficient in Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, etc.

(Mexico City = Yonhap News) Correspondent Gwang-ho Song = Pope Leo

According to the Peruvian Andina news agency on the 9th (local time), Leo XIV speaks fluent English, his native language, as well as Spanish, Italian, French, and Portuguese.

He was sent to the Pontifical Aquinas University in Rome to study church law and learn Italian. It is said that he naturally learned French from an early age because his maternal family is of French descent.

I began learning Spanish in earnest while serving as a pastor in Peru in 1985. He spent about half of his pastoral work here and mastered Spanish. He is also fluent in Portuguese, which is from the same Latin family.

In addition, he is known to be proficient in reading Latin and German literature, which is essential for the study of canon law.

In particular, he studied Quechua, the local language, while serving as a pastor in the Trujillo region of Peru for 11 years. Quechua is the language of the ancient Inca Empire, and is not a dead language but an everyday language still used by millions of people. He is said to have passionately learned the language by voluntarily taking online classes.

Yaninna Sessa, former director of the Catholic charity Chiclayo Caritas, told TV Peru that the Pope, who frequently visited the highlands, was able to communicate directly even in areas where the population only spoke Quechua.

Meanwhile, the Pope continued his second day of visit in Argentina. In the morning, we visited a care center for the disabled, listened to their difficult stories without an interpreter, and communicated directly with them. After celebrating mass at the Buenos Aires Cathedral, he gave a speech at Catholic University on the topic, 'The economy must exist for people.' Less than a month after undergoing lung cancer surgery, he embarked on a tour of South America, completing over 50 stops in 3 countries over 12 days.