Credit : Reuters' X
ROME, November 6, 2026 — Pope Leo XIV departed Rome on Friday for a 12-day apostolic journey to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru, his sixth international trip since becoming pontiff and a return to the region where he spent decades as a missionary, Reuters and Vatican media reported.
Vatican News said an ITA Airways aircraft carrying the Pope and accompanying journalists left Rome’s Fiumicino Airport at 7:05 a.m. Arrival in Montevideo was expected around 4:30 p.m. local time, with an official welcome in Independence Square, meetings with Uruguayan authorities and Vespers at the Metropolitan Cathedral.
Reuters described the itinerary as an ambitious tour expected to draw millions-strong crowds as the first US-born pope revisits a Catholic heartland. After Uruguay, Leo is due in Argentina — including Buenos Aires, Córdoba and Luján — and then Peru, with stops planned in Lima, Chiclayo, Cusco and Pucallpa before returning to Rome on November 17.
The Holy See Press Office programme lists roughly a dozen flights and nearly 40 addresses in Spanish across ten cities between November 6 and 17. Vatican presenters had briefed journalists on November 3 on the pastoral themes of peace, closeness to the poor and encouragement for local churches.
Leo’s Latin American years as a missionary remain central to his public biography and help explain the emotional weight of the visit for Catholics in the three host countries. Church organisers have prepared large open-air gatherings while coordinating security with national governments.
Reuters noted the trip comes about a month after the Pope underwent lung surgery, a detail also highlighted in earlier wire copy. Vatican officials said medical advisers cleared him to travel; the schedule nonetheless spaces major events to limit fatigue.
Regional bishops hope the journey will energise vocations and draw attention to migration, inequality and environmental pressures in the Amazon and Southern Cone. Civil authorities in Montevideo, Buenos Aires and Lima have treated the visit as both a pastoral and diplomatic event.
No major doctrinal announcement was trailed ahead of departure. Homilies and speeches on the ground are expected to emphasise mercy, social friendship and care for creation — themes Leo has stressed since his election. Journalists travelling with the papal plane will have limited question sessions in flight.
Crowds began gathering near Montevideo’s ceremonial sites hours before the scheduled landing. Similar scenes are expected in Argentina and Peru, where Catholic majorities still shape public culture even as secularisation advances among younger voters.
ITA Airways confirmed it was operating the papal aircraft for the South America leg, continuing a commercial partnership used on recent foreign trips. Airport authorities in Rome and Montevideo published temporary traffic plans for motorcades and media convoys. Local hospitals were placed on heightened standby along the route as a standard precaution for large gatherings.
For many Catholics in Argentina and Peru, the visit is also personal: Leo’s missionary years left networks of parishes and religious communities that helped shape his pastoral style. Organisers say those ties explain why tickets for stadium Masses were exhausted within hours of release in several cities.
Source: Reuters on X, with background from Vatican News, the Holy See Press Office programme and earlier Reuters reporting on the South America tour.
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