The visit of Pope Leo XIV in Uruguay, live | The Pope lands in Montevideo, his first stop on the tour of Uruguay, Argentina and Peru

Leo XIV is already in South America, the continent where he served as bishop and to which he now returns for the first time as Pope. The plane landed at 4:20 p.m. this Friday in Montevideo, the first stop on an eleven-day tour that will visit Uruguay, Argentina and Peru. It had been almost four decades since a pontiff had visited this southern tip of America, not even in Argentina, the homeland of Francis, his predecessor.

It starts in one of the most secular countries on the continent, but where you will find a Government compatible with your preaching in favor of social justice, the defense of the weakest and coexistence as an antidote to polarization. The meeting with the Uruguayan president, Yamandú Orsi, is scheduled for this Friday, after a first public appearance in the Plaza de la Independencia, which began to fill with parishioners after noon.

South American Catholics held their breath a month ago when Leo XIV underwent surgery to remove lung adenocarcinoma. The announcement that he had recovered and the tour was going ahead resumed preparations to see him. In total, it will total 31,000 kilometers, travel through ten cities, take 14 flights and give nearly 40 speeches.

This Friday, in addition to meeting with the political and religious authorities, Leo XIV will receive the Key to the city of Montevideo in the Cabildo and will cross the square surrounded by a human cordon of children towards the Cathedral. The tour will continue tomorrow with a tour of Casavalle - one of the poorest neighborhoods on the outskirts of Montevideo -, a mass mass in the city of Paysandú and a meeting with the world of education at the Argentine Catholic University. The high point of the pastoral visit will be the mass celebrated on Sunday in Florida, the city that houses the Virgin of the Thirty-Three, the highest religious figure of Uruguay and patron saint of the country.

From Uruguay he will leave for Argentina, a stopover that will be marked by the memory of Francisco and by the meeting with Javier Milei, Donald Trump's most unconditional ally on the continent and speaker of his far-right policies. Milei, who had described Francisco as “representative of the Evil One on Earth” before becoming President, took a big turn when he arrived at the Casa Rosada and has put the person he most trusts in, his sister and secretary of the Presidency Karina Milei, in charge of the preparations for the visit.

The final leg of the tour will be Peru, the country that American-born Robert Prevost adopted as his own and where he was a missionary and bishop. He will stay there for six days, the longest stopover, and has numerous activities planned that will allow him to reconnect with his people.