Pope Leo resumes Latin America tour after cancer surgery

Pope begins Latin America tour

Pope Leo XIV arrived in Uruguay on November 6 to start a three-nation tour, three weeks after undergoing lung cancer surgery that had threatened the entire trip.

A thirteen-and-a-half hour flight

Leo flew from Rome to Montevideo for a packed three-day itinerary including a visit to a gang-violence neighbourhood, a Mass in Paysandú, and another in Florida.

The longest trip of his papacy

This is the longest and farthest journey of the seventy-one-year-old pope's pontificate, undertaken while he continues his recovery from October thirteenth surgery.

Vatican confident in his recovery

Maria Montserrat Alvar, the Vatican's communications chief, said Leo has passed the required fourteen-day convalescence period and his doctors are very confident about his health.

“His stamina is fantastic. The way that he's singing is incredible. And you can only sing if your lungs are really strong.”

Uruguay's secular landscape

Uruguay, which has not had a papal visit since nineteen eighty-eight, is the most secular country in Latin America. Only a fraction of Catholics there attend Mass regularly.

Uruguay's progressive laws

Uruguay was the first country in the world to legalize marijuana for recreational use, the second in Latin America to decriminalize abortion, and the third in the Americas to legalize same-sex marriage.

Assisted dying and church opposition

Uruguay became the first country in the region to approve assisted dying legislation, despite strong opposition from the Catholic Church, reflecting its church-state separation.

Reviving Catholic roots

Leo will travel to Florida on November eighth to mark the feast of the Virgin of the Thirty-three, a wooden icon connected to Uruguay's independence declared August twenty-fifth, eighteen twenty-five.

Enthusiasm may not last

While church officials report strong ticket sales for Leo's prayer vigil, experts warn that enthusiasm for the visit may not translate into increased church attendance in Uruguay.

“If the overarching goal is trying to revitalize Catholicism in the most Catholic region on Earth, Uruguay is kind of a lost cause, and it has been for decades.”