Pope Leo XIV has been formally invited to visit Peru, his adoptive country, by the leadership of the Peruvian bishops’ conference.
Though born in the US, which rejoiced at the election of the first pope in history to come the United States, Pope Leo has also maintained his Peruvian citizenship after receiving it in 2015 following his appointment as bishop of Chiclayo.
In a 30 June statement published on the website of the Peruvian Episcopal Conference (CEP), the bishops said a delegation from Peru had attended the 29 June celebration on Sunday for Saint Peter and Saint Paul at the Vatican, a major feast day celebrating the patrons of Rome.
According to CEP’s statement, after Sunday’s Mass the delegation, led by Bishop Carlos García Camader of Lurín, current president of CEP, had a meeting the following day with the Pope, 30 June, during which they extended an official invitation for Pope Leo to visit Peru.
The statement featured a letter by García Camader in which the bishop expressed, on behalf of all the bishops and the entire Peruvian people, “his profound affection and closeness to the Holy Father, thanking him for holding a special place in his heart for Peru, a country where he served pastorally for many years before being elected Successor of Peter".
The letter continued: “Your presence will renew the hope of our people, strengthen the faith of our communities, and it will be a beautiful sign of communion with the universal Church."
The celebration on Sunday also marked the occasion when a pope traditionally bestows the pallium, a strip of lambswool that Church leaders who head metropolitan archdioceses wear around their shoulders and over their Mass vestments during liturgical celebrations.
During Sunday’s Mass, one of the new metropolitan archbishops who got a pallium from Pope Leo was Archbishop Alfredo Vizcarra of Trujillo, who took over leadership of the metropolitan archdiocese in Peru from the former president of the CEP, Bishop Miguel Cabrejos, following the latter's retirement.
The pallium is a symbol of an archbishop’s unity with the Pope and his authority and responsibility to care for the flock entrusted to him. Pallia – the plural form of pallium – are traditionally knitted by a community of nuns, before being blessed by a pope and bestowed on new metropolitan archbishops during a June 29 liturgy at the Vatican.
Pope Francis changed this tradition, however, choosing to instead have the Vatican envoy to a country, the papal nuncio, conduct the bestowing of the pallium in an archbishop’s actual diocese. The change was explained by the Vatican at the time as seeking to help foster participation at the local level of the Church and as part of its "journey of synodality" in the Catholic Church".
Pope Leo XIV, however, has changed Pope Francis's practice, <a href="https://thecatholicherald.com/pope-leo-gives-first-indication-of-how-he-interprets-synodality/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">going back to the tradition of bestowing the palliums himself</mark></a> during the 29 June Mass in Rome.
A delegation of 15 prelates from Peru attended the Mass, including some who were also in Rome for the June 23-27 jubilees held for seminarians, bishops and priests.
Pope Leo has met with several Peruvian prelates since his election on 8 May, and has himself voiced his desire to visit Peru. It is unknown when precisely a full apostolic visit might occur.
Peruvian President Dina Boluarte was present for Pope Leo’s inauguration Mass in St. Peter’s Square on 18 May.
A delegation from the Peruvian National Registry of Identification and Civil Status also came to the Vatican at the end of May to assist the Pope in updating the information on his Peruvian National Identity document.
<em>Photo: A new archbishop receives a pallium from Pope Leo XIV during a Mass on the feast days of Saints Peter and Paul at St Peter's Basilica, Vatican, 29 June 2025. (Photo by TIZIANA FABI/AFP via Getty Images.)</em>
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