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Pope Leo XIV Heads to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru on First South America Trip

Elena MarquezPublished 5m ago2 min readBased on 8 sources
Pope Leo XIV Heads to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru on First South America Trip
Photo by Barbara Provenzano on Unsplash

Pope Leo XIV is scheduled to begin a 12-day trip to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru on 6 November 2026. It is his first trip to South America. The journey runs until 17 November and is what the Vatican calls an Apostolic Journey, an official overseas visit by the head of the Catholic Church.

The Holy See Press Office, the Vatican's communications office, published the detailed programme for the trip on 21 September. Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, is among the stops on the itinerary. The pope will travel to Peru on 11 November and remain there until 17 November, visiting Lima, Chiclayo, Cuzco and Pucallpa.

According to the Associated Press, the November tour is the longest and farthest trip of Leo's papacy so far.

The trip has been watched closely because of the pope's health. Leo is 71 years old, and he underwent lung cancer surgery on 13 October 2026, according to Reuters. The Vatican said on 26 October that the trip would go ahead. On 3 November it said the pope is healthy and needs no extra measures for the journey.

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