A pontiff from Chiclayo: How Peru is reacting to Pope Leo XIV

Al Jazeera

21-05-2025

The footage is blurry. The framing is unsteady. And at one moment, another cellphone pokes into view to capture the scene.
But the video has nevertheless gone viral in Peru for one big reason: It captures a goofy, off-the-cuff moment with the new head of the Catholic Church, Pope Leo XIV.
On Sunday, the newly elected pope formally began his leadership of the church with an inaugural mass at Saint Peter's Square in the Vatican.
His papacy has made history. Born in Chicago, Leo XIV is the first pope ever to hail from the United States. But for Peruvians in the northern city of Chiclayo, he is a hometown hero, and the viral video from 2014 is proof of his South American roots.
Under fluorescent lights and scattered decorations made of curling ribbon, Leo XIV — then known as Robert Prevost — warbles Christmas songs into a handheld microphone.
'Feliz Navidad! Feliz Navidad,' he sings, backed by a guitar-playing band of Chiclayo youths, swaying to the beat. 'I wanna wish you a merry Christmas!'
In the lead-up to his papacy, Chiclayo, Peru's fifth largest city, has played a central role in Leo XIV's rise through the Catholic Church.
Since 1985, Leo has served in various Catholic missions throughout the north of the country. But over the last decade of his career, Chiclayo has been his home base. He served as bishop there from 2015 to 2023, and during that time, he also became a Peruvian citizen.
'He has earned the love of the people,' said Father Jose Alejandro Castillo Vera, a local church leader who first met Leo XIV in 2014.
But while the region has warmly embraced its 'papa chiclayano' — its pope from Chiclayo — the situation in Latin America also reflects the struggles of Leo's new post.
Catholicism is thought to be on the decline in Latin America. A survey from the public opinion firm Latinobarometro found that, from 1995 to 2024, the number of self-identified Catholics slipped from about 80 percent to 54.
And in Peru, public opinion suffered in the wake of a sexual abuse scandal that emerged in 2015.
Still, in Chiclayo, there is optimism that Leo XIV's leadership can reinvigorate the Catholic faithful, given his track record of public service.
'I think he can promote space for dialogue,' said Yolanda Diaz, a 70-year-old teacher in Chiclayo and national adviser for the National Union of Catholic Students.
She believes Leo XIV will help 'move forward, little by little, the changes we want to see in the church'.
Leo XIV set the tone for his papacy early on. In his first remarks after his election, he switched from Italian to Spanish to address his adopted hometown directly.
'If you allow me a word, a greeting to all and in particular to my beloved diocese of Chiclayo, in Peru, where a faithful people accompanied their bishop, shared their faith and gave so much, so much, to continue being a faithful Church of Jesus Christ,' he said.
Vatican observers quickly pointed out he opted not to address the US, his birth country, nor to speak in his native English.
In the days that followed, thousands of people poured into Chiclayo's main square to celebrate the new pope, dancing and receiving communion in the shadow of its buttercup-yellow cathedral.
In the frenzy, local businesses spied economic potential. Ricardo Acosta, the president of the National Association of Travel Agencies and Tourism (APAVIT), proposed creating a pope-themed tourism route.
And restaurants in Chiclayo posted signs outside their door: 'Aqui comio el Papa.' In other words: 'The pope ate here.'
Poverty in the northern region of Peru affects nearly a quarter of the population. And local advocates have argued that the city and surrounding regions struggle with inadequate public infrastructure.
That problem was thrown into stark relief during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, when the United Nations reported that more than a thousand families in Chiclayo lacked access to drinking water.
Healthcare resources were also stretched thin. Peru had the highest death rate per capita, with an estimated 665.8 deaths for every 100,000 people.
Father Castillo, the secretary-general of the Catholic aid organisation Caritas Chiclayo, remembers that Leo XIV played a critical role in raising money to buy medical-grade oxygen to treat the sick.
'He came up with the idea of making a campaign to support the community, to acquire an oxygen plant,' Father Castillo explained.
Through their collective efforts, more than $380,000 were raised to buy the oxygen generation systems.
'He appealed to the entire population, to the authorities and to the businessmen as well,' Father Castillo said. 'In the end, God was so great that not only there was money for one plant, but for two oxygen plants.'
Both, however, have since been shut down due to a lack of funds for maintenance. Still, Father Castillo told Al Jazeera he hopes Pope Leo XIV will continue his advocacy for the poor while at the Vatican.
'We are all hopeful that he continues to be that voice, not only for us Peruvians, but for everyone,' he said. 'Many people need to get out of misery, out of poverty.'
For Diaz, the teacher, one of her fondest memories of the new pope was working together on another pressing issue facing Peru: migration.
Since 2018, Peru has become one of the leading destinations for migrants and asylum seekers from Venezuela, where political repression and economic instability have driven more than 7.9 million people abroad.
The United Nations estimates that Peru has absorbed nearly two million of those migrants. That makes it the second largest recipient of Venezuelans in Latin America.
Diaz told Al Jazeera she witnessed the impact of that wave of arrivals in Chiclayo. She and Leo XIV worked together on a new commission he established as bishop to address migration and human trafficking.
'We had a big surge,' Diaz remembered. 'We saw up to 20,000 people arriving in Chiclayo, more than 3,000 families, including children and youngsters. You could see them sleeping in the main square, on the streets, in church entrances, outside travel companies.'
The influx has stirred up anti-immigrant sentiment among some Peruvians, resulting in reports of discrimination.
But Diaz observed that Leo XIV attempted to destigmatise what it means to be a foreigner in Peru when he visited migrant communities.
'I'm a migrant,' Diaz remembers him saying. 'I know what it means to arrive as a migrant in an unknown land, with a different culture.'
She saw that as evidence he can bridge divides in his new role as pope. 'He understands there's diversity in the church.'
But while Pope Leo XIV is largely seen as a unifying figure in Chiclayo, his papacy has reignited some lingering controversies within the Catholic Church.
Among the most damning are the allegations of sexual abuse in Catholic dioceses across the globe, from the US to Chile to Ireland.
The Catholic Church in Peru is no exception. Much of the scrutiny has centred on one group in particular, the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV).
It was founded in Peru in 1971 and grew to include members across Latin America.
But in 2011, the Catholic Church started to receive formal complaints about its founder Luis Fernando Figari and other leaders in the SCV movement.
In 2015, after years of investigation, journalists Pedro Salinas and Paola Ugaz published a book about the complaints that shocked Peruvian society and brought the issue to international attention.
Called Half Monks, Half Soldiers, the book detailed more than 30 cases of abuse, including allegations of psychological abuse, forced sodomisation and other harms committed in the SCV.
Ugaz told Al Jazeera that the future Pope Leo was supportive of her efforts to investigate.
'Among the bishops who supported us until the end is Robert Prevost, an empathetic person who is aware that this issue is crucial to his papacy,' she said in a written statement.
Figari has consistently denied any wrongdoing. But Leo's predecessor at the Vatican, Pope Francis, eventually sent two envoys to Peru, including an archbishop, to investigate the group.
In 2024, Peru's church authorities released a statement confirming that the investigation had found cases of 'physical abuse, including sadism and violence' as well as other actions designed 'to break the will of subordinates'.
Figari and other top members were ultimately expelled from the organisation. And later, Pope Francis took the rare step of dissolving the group altogether. The decree of suppression took effect just one week before Francis died in April, effectively abolishing the group.
But Pope Leo himself has faced scrutiny over whether he failed to act upon the complaints the diocese in Chiclayo received while he was bishop.
In March, for instance, a group called Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) issued a letter alleging that three women in 2022 reported their sexual abuse to the diocese, only to face institutional silence.
'There is serious reason to believe that Cardinal Prevost did not follow the procedures established by the Holy See for carrying out investigations following reports of abuse,' SNAP wrote.
Leo XIV, however, has told the Peruvian newspaper La Republica in the past that he rejects 'cover-ups and secrecy'. And last week, Father Jordi Bertomeu Farnos, a Vatican investigator, denied the reports.
'Robert Prevost did not cover up anything,' Bertomeu Farnos told Peruvian media in Rome. 'He did everything according to the protocols we have in the Vatican.'
Ugaz, the journalist, says she remains optimistic Leo XIV can implement reform.
She pointed out that, in his first days as pope, Leo XIV held a meeting with Cardinal Sean O'Malley, who leads a Vatican commission to protect children from abuse. She also recalled the words of encouragement he recently gave to her and her journalism partner.
'He asked us to continue our work,' she said, 'and to expect news about Peru soon.'