Returning to his former diocese in Peru, Pope Leo has called for the church to respond to suffering communities in rural areas who face poverty, a lack of dignified work and declining birthrates.
The Pope celebrated Mass outdoors in the isolated village of Santa Cruz de Succhabamba in the Andes on Saturday, arriving by helicopter.
While around 6,000 people live in the village, about 20,000 attended the event according to the Vatican. It is in the Diocese of Chiclayo, where he was a bishop from 2015 to 2023.
Leo thanked people for embarking on a “pilgrimage of faith” from remote places to encounter Jesus.
'Faith, prayer and action against injustice'
Pope Leo focused his sermon on the Parable of the Persistent Widow (Luke 18:1-8), being “an invitation to open our eyes to the many painful situations around us.” He believed the widow’s call for justice “is still sadly heard today, unanswered, on the lips of so many men and women”, which should be a concern for the Church and wider society.
The Pope spoke of the “suffering of those who are forced to leave their homeland in search of a better future”, the unequal sharing of resources from the land and “declining birth rates that are emptying villages”.
In response to injustice, he called for “prayer, patience, and persevering in denouncing what is wrong, by making our pleas with determination, and by working diligently to bring about the necessary changes, while never losing trust in God.” Pope Leo also remarked on the link between faith, prayer and action; praising those who “strive to provide people with dignified jobs.”
More than four in ten residents in the Cajamarca region, which includes Santa Cruz de Succhabamba, live in poverty. Official estimates also suggest it has suffered the most from internal migration, with 729,000 people born there having moved elsewhere in the country.
‘Missionaries defend their communities’
Similar themes are expected to be discussed as Pope Leo goes on to visit Cusco, capital of the Inca Empire, and Pucallpa, in the lowland Amazon jungle.
Pope Leo will become the first pontiff to celebrate Mass in the Amazon on Sunday, after meeting with indigenous people and Catholic missionaries who serve alongside them. A delegation from the Amazonian Centre for Anthropology and Practical Application (CAAAP), Peruvian partner of aid agency CAFOD, will be there to meet the Pope.
Ruth Mier Y Teran, project manager at CAAAP, told Premier Christian News that people in the region are excited as “Leo is coming back home”, with events providing the chance to “listen, sow and celebrate”.
She said: “It will be a reflection, to try and find new ways of dialogue between faith and culture. The indigenous population are the poorest of the poorest in Peru. They’re in a region that is marginalised, a place used to extract resources. These priests live with the communities, they stay there, they share their lives. They’re missionaries that live decades with one indigenous people, and they perfect the language. They give their lives to their communities and defend people’s rights.”
Environmental degradation and illegal logging are expected to be raised. The Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project estimates 140,000 hectares of rainforest has been cleared for gold mining since 1984, with waterways having been poisoned.
The Pope will be gifted a wooden chalice and paten plate, crafted from the region’s wood. It will bear the Augustinian symbol of a burning heart pierced by an arrow and the otorongo, “the lion of the Amazon, representing strength and wisdom” as well as reflecting his name being the Spanish word for Lion, Mier Y Teran explained to Premier.
Peru is the final leg of Pope Leo’s Latin America tour, where he was a missionary for nearly 20 years. Earlier on Saturday, the Pope returned to the city of Chiclayo and was greeted by a crowd estimated to be 1.5 million people.
The Pope has already visited Argentina and Uruguay. He has undertaken the apostolic journey having recovered from surgery removing part of his right lung which had cancer.