9 hours ago
5
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.
From delivering help to flood-ravaged regions to singing Christmas songs to blessing babies, Pope Leo XIV tried to be a cleric of the people in Peru.
May 9, 2025, 11:40 a.m. ET
They remembered him in rubber boots, in a devastating flood, working side by side with the Red Cross. They shared images of him on a horse, in the countryside, wearing stylish aviator shades and crooning Christmas ballads — “Feliz Navidad!” — grinning and clapping alongside a rousing crowd.
Pope Leo XIV may have been born in Chicago, but the people of Chiclayo, a city in northern Peru where he served as bishop from 2015 to 2023, have claimed him as one of their own.
“Welcome to Chiclayo, the land of the pope!” a flight attendant announced as a plane from Lima touched down on Thursday. Passengers burst into applause.
Pope Leo XIV spent much of his career outside the United States, arriving in northern Peru in 1984 at a time when internal conflict terrorized much of the countryside, killing many Peruvians and making the country an uncommon destination for foreigners.
Image
He stayed, except for a brief stint in Illinois, until roughly 1999, according to an official biography. And then he returned again in 2014, becoming bishop of Chiclayo in 2015.
