The pope returned on Wednesday to his adopted land, which he has loved so much since he left his native Chicago in 1985 to become a missionary in the northern lands of the Andean country. Little Father Roberto learned from his people (also from his politicians) and sheltered tens of thousands, the most disadvantaged, until he knew them deeply.
"Here I am, at home!" he cried in Lima, where he arrived as Leo
Prevost was received in style, more than three million people in the streets of Lima on his first day; many more, according to the authorities, in the second. National holiday in every sense, an unbeatable setting so that his advice does not go unnoticed, knowing that reconciliation is one of the main challenges of a country divided in half: capital and provinces, Fujimorists and anti-Fujimorists, leftists and anti-leftists.
The distribution is so tight that Keiko Fujimori, controversial host of the Supreme Pontiff, became president this year on the fourth attempt, after defeating the leftist candidate, Roberto Sánchez, by just 49,461 ballots, a figure very similar to the one that removed him from power in 2011, 2016 and 2021.
The president accompanied Leo XIV on his first steps in Peru, very physically close, they even sang the national anthem together, something that filled Peruvians with joy. Despite this supposed closeness, Keiko has surprised the country by deciding that he will go on a trip to China and Japan on Sunday, one day before the papal tour ends. Perhaps deep down he has not forgotten how the then bishop Prevost questioned the pardon of the dictator Alberto Fujimori in 2017 because he had not asked for forgiveness from the victims.
Extortions
The latest polls show in figures what is already being felt in the streets of the capital: Fujimori has not yet been able to successfully confront the violence, as he promised in his heavy-handed electoral campaign. Even one of the women from the town who spoke before the Pope yesterday confessed that many suffer from economic extortion by the mafias.
According to Ipsos, 53% of Peruvians disapprove of the populist leader's presidential management. Only 37% see it satisfactorily. The most critical opinions, as always, come from the south and the Andes.
"Democratic life implies recognizing that no one has all the answers," the "Lion of Hope" roared with a smile, as the children's choir sang to him that said goodbye to him from the presidential Casa de Pizarro. A sentence so far removed from universal political times, where populism predominates and where extreme polarization has become one of the main ways to retain power.
"Do not stop walking with the people," he exhorted the Peruvian bishops in the first morning meeting. They were so formal that Prevost joked with them; In his two days in Peru, Prevost has shown himself fully recovered, with that energy that made him famous in Chiclayo.
Realities
It was precisely in the meeting with the ecclesiastical leadership where Leo XIV recalled the sexual abuses that have so affected the Catholic Church. "Let me refer to a reality that has caused us so much pain: the abuses perpetrated by members of the clergy or in the ecclesial context. We must respond as Jesus would do: with truth, with justice, with forgiveness, with reparation and an increasingly determined commitment in favor of a culture of prevention and protection of the weakest against these crimes."
A very firm position, which is not new. As bishop of Chiclayo, Father Roberto suffered the attack of the Soladicio de la Vida Cristiana, a powerful, extremely conservative organization that Francisco dissolved in 2025. The ultras lost the battle in Peru against the missionary who had decided to fight against the darkness of his Church.
