LIMA, Peru (AP) — After his emotional homecoming, Pope Leo XIV got down to work Thursday telling Peru's Catholic bishops to accompany their flocks as they face poverty and injustices, and respond to victims of clergy sexual abuse with truth, justice and amends.
Leo made it clear he knows the Peruvian church and people well in his opening events in Lima, identifying some of the biggest challenges facing them and calling the influential Catholic hierarchy
especially to task to be models of unity and communion.
Peruvians turned out in droves to catch a glimpse of Leo, with crowds outside the church residence where he is staying and an even bigger gathering at the central Plaza Mayor where he had his first events Thursday. Leo thrilled them by looping around the plaza in his popemobile.
At every turn, Leo has been serenaded by a children’s choir belting out a catchy tune composed especially for his trip, accompanied by Andean flutes: “Papa León, hermano del camino, Papa León, sembrador de fraternidad." (“Pope Leo, brother on the journey, Pope Leo, sower of brotherhood.”)
“It’s a blessing not only for us Chiclayans but for all of Peru," said Ángel Esquives, a craftsman originally from Leo's former diocese in Chiclayo who now lives in Lima. He said he left his home at 3 a.m. to go to the historic center and stand in line to get as close as possible to the pope.
As he showed in the first two legs of his South American trip, Leo was in fine form despite having undergone lung cancer surgery last month. He bounded up a steep flight of stairs Thursday morning without any apparent problems and joked with the bishops that some “doubting Thomases” had predicted he wouldn’t be able to come.
“But God is great and his grace is bigger than all of us and I'm very happy to be here with you,” he said to applause.
Citing local authorities, the Vatican estimated that some 3 million people had lined Leo's motorcade route on Wednesday to welcome “Padre Robert” home. The Chicago-born pope, who also has Peruvian citizenship, responded with an emotional ode to all that Peru had given him.
The former Robert Prevost spent two decades as a missionary priest and bishop in Peru and credits the place with teaching him how to be a shepherd. He in many ways has modeled his vocation as a bishop on the 16th century St. Turibius de Mogrovejo, the first archbishop of Lima.
Mogrovejo is revered for having traveled long distances to be with his flock and for having defended the rights of Indigenous and enslaved peoples. He studied Quechua and Aymara and oversaw the printing of the Catechism of the Catholic Church in these Indigenous languages, because he believed the faith had to be transmitted in the language people could understand.
Leo urged bishops on Thursday to model their vocation on his example. Being a bishop, he said, means “entering people’s homes, accompanying the sick, meeting young people and reaching out to communities which, due to their geographical remoteness or social vulnerability, are rarely able to make their voices heard.”
While the clergy sexual abuse scandal hasn’t exploded publicly in Peru as it has in other Latin American countries, Leo identified it as a “reality that has caused us so much pain.”
“We must respond as Jesus would, with truth, justice, forgiveness, making amends and an ever more resolute commitment to fostering a culture of prevention and protection for the weakest in light of such crimes,” Leo said.
The online database BishopAccountability has identified 77 priests, brothers, seminarians and lay consecrated in Peru who have been publicly accused of sexually abusing minors. But based on trends in other countries, the organization said that number is a “small fraction” of the total, arguing victims simply haven't come forward yet in the overwhelmingly Catholic country where the church wields significant influence.
Leo, who was the Peruvian bishops' point-person to welcome victims while he was Chiclayo bishop, was expected to meet with survivors during his stay in Peru. A protest by a victims group was also planned later Thursday.
Peruvian Cardinal Pedro Barreto, the president of the Amazonian bishops conference, said Leo was acutely attuned to the needs of the Peruvian people and church, and would offer words of consolation and advice during his days crisscrossing the country, from his beloved Chiclayo in the north to the Andes and rainforest.
“Leo will listen to the anguish and hopes of the Indigenous peoples, especially the pain caused by the violence affecting girls, boys, adolescents, and young people,” said Barreto, who was close friends with both Prevost and his predecessor, Pope Francis, a Jesuit like Barreto.
He predicted Leo would pay special attention to a recent case in the province of Condorcanqui, in the northern Peruvian jungle, where teachers sexually abused Indigenous Awajún and Wampis girls.
“Pope Leo will reaffirm the church’s commitment to continue accompanying Indigenous peoples in defending life, their dignity as persons, their cultures, and in caring for the Amazon,” Barreto said.
The Rev. Peter Hughes, an 84-year-old Irish priest who has lived in Peru for more than 60 years, said Leo was comfortable in Peru not only because he had it as his home, but because he sees its poverty and political polarization as mirroring the global situation.
“That is what makes leaders like Pope Francis and Pope Leo speak the language of the Gospel in very human terms, putting a premium on justice and peace,” he said. “In the Christian sense of justice, the most important people are the poor, the marginalized, and those who have no voice."
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