By Yara Nardi and Joshua McElwee
SANTA CRUZ DE SUCCHABAMBA, Peru, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Pope Leo travelled on Saturday to Peru's western Andean mountains on a special stop on his 12-day South America tour to visit a remote town of under 6,000 inhabitants who once knew him as the bishop of Chiclayo, the big city that's a four-hour drive away.
Leo, visiting Peru on an emotional return home for the first Peruvian citizen to become pope, made a journey he took many times as Chiclayo's bishop from 2015 to 2023,
going 100 km (62 miles) east from the Pacific Coast to Santa Cruz de Succhabamba.
This time, instead of taking winding mountain roads where drivers go slowly to navigate steep ravines, the leader of the global Catholic Church arrived by helicopter.
"Pope Leo, welcome home," a local band sang as crowds gathered in a field for a Mass with Leo. Buildings across the city center, developed in a Spanish colonial style, were painted with murals depicting the pope when he was a bishop in Peru.
Leo, originally from Chicago, lived for about 20 years in Peru as a missionary and holds both US and Peruvian citizenship. He is visiting the country on the last and most personal leg of a three-nation tour that has drawn record crowds of some 12 million people.
Cajamarca, the Peruvian department including Santa Cruz, is one of the poorest regions of the country, where up to 40% the population lives in poverty, according to the state statistics office.
Speaking at a local parish shortly after arrival on Saturday, Leo said he felt "great joy" at being able to visit the small town again.
"It is like a very big dream that the Lord has allowed this servant to come here," he said.
A CHANCE TO SEE 'FATHER ROBERT'
Leo later celebrated Mass on a field near the parish. The crowd, estimated by that Vatican at 20,000 people, was smaller than other events on his South America tour, but many of the people present were known by Leo, who used to visit several times a year to minister to its rural population.
Among them was Rev. Kevin Noriega, a local priest ordained by the future pope, then known as Bishop Robert Prevost, in 2018. He said Leo, known as someone who enjoys driving, used to drive himself in a pick-up truck to come visit the community and stay there for days.
"There is enormous hope and emotion today," said Noriega. "People are eager to experience this Holy Mass ... because after so much time they will be able to see their bishop — 'Father Robert,' as they used to call him — now as the Holy Father."
In a sermon on Saturday, Leo thanked the crowd for making the journey into town to see him and encouraged them never to lose heart, despite life's difficulties.
"Brothers and sisters, the Lord knows the paths you travel, your hardships, your worries and the challenges you face," he said. "When strength is lacking, he is your nourishment."
Leo returns to Chiclayo on Saturday afternoon ahead of visits on Sunday, his penultimate day in Peru, to Cusco, the former Inca capital, and Pucallpa, a gateway to the Amazonian jungle.
(Reporting by Yara Nardi in Santa Cruz de Succhubamba and Joshua McElwee in Chiclayo, additional reporting by Marco Aquino in Lima; Editing by Nick Zieminski)
