Just weeks after cancer surgery, Pope Leo XIV, who has arrived in Montevideo, Uruguay, will navigate the region’s tide of secularism, deep polarization — and high altitudes.
Pope Leo XIV appears at the window of the Apostolic Palace overlooking St. Peter's Square at the Vatican on Sunday. (Alessandra Tarantino/AP)
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — Pope Leo XIV landed in Uruguay’s capital Friday, the first stop in a 12-day Latin America trip that also includes stops in Argentina and Peru. It is set to be his breakout moment — with predictions of the largest, most effusive crowds of his papacy — and a historic homecoming for the Chicago-born pontiff who is a citizen of both the United States and Peru, which he adopted as a second home after working there for two decades.
