On Sunday, November 8, during the homily celebrated at the Cathedral of Cuernavaca, the president of the Mexican Episcopal Conference (CEM) and bishop of the diocese, Ramón Castro Castro, announced that he had accepted the formal invitation of the Episcopal Conference of Peru to accompany Pope Leo XIV throughout his stay in Peruvian territory, from November 11 to 16, 2026, as a representative of the Mexican episcopate. “With God’s favor, next Sunday I will not be here, and I have the privilege, the joy, and the honor of accompanying the Pope’s entire visit to Peru,” the prelate expressed before the faithful, who responded with applause. The announcement comes within the framework of Leo XIV’s first apostolic journey to South America, which will take him through Uruguay, Argentina, and Peru between November 6 and 17, and whose Peruvian stage holds especially personal significance for the Pontiff.
Robert Francis Prevost, now Leo XIV, arrived in Peru as an Augustinian missionary in 1985 and carried out decades of pastoral work in Chulucanas, Trujillo, and especially in Chiclayo, where he served as bishop from 2015 to 2023. He obtained Peruvian nationality and left a legacy of closeness with the faithful, particularly in times of crisis such as the floods associated with the El Niño phenomenon or the COVID-19 pandemic. His return as Pope is, therefore, a reunion with a Church and a people he knows well.
The presence of Castro Castro underscores the bonds of communion between the Churches of Mexico and Peru at a time when the Mexican episcopate has also brought to Rome the painful reality of forced disappearances. In October of this year, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia, Castro Castro and the vice president of the CEM, the archbishop of León, Jaime Calderón Calderón, participated in the meeting convened by Leo XIV at the Vatican with the presidents of the episcopal conferences and heads of the Eastern Catholic Churches. In that context, the president of the CEM personally delivered to the Pontiff the book Un nombre, mil voces (also referred to as Los rostros y nombres de la desaparición forzada en México), a volume of more than 200 pages that gathers faces, names, places, and dates of disappeared persons, prepared in coordination with search collectives and the National Dialogue for Peace. The invitation to Castro to visit Peru will require him to set aside the work of the 121st assembly of the CEM, to be held this week, during which the jubilee year for the Cristero War will be opened.
The work highlights a crisis that exceeds 130,000 disappeared and unlocated persons and seeks to bring the memory of families who never stop searching to the Holy Father and international bodies. The gesture is part of the Mexican Church’s commitment to truth, justice, and non-indifference in the face of the pain of thousands of households.
According to the official itinerary published by the Holy See, the Pope will land on Wednesday, November 11, coming from Buenos Aires, at the Base Aérea del Callao. That same afternoon he will participate in the welcome ceremony at the Government Palace, pay a protocol visit to the president of the Republic, and meet with authorities, civil society, and the diplomatic corps at the Gran Teatro Nacional. On Thursday the 12th, in Lima, he will have a private meeting with the bishops of Peru in the chapel of the Archbishop’s Palace, celebrate the Hour of Terce with the clergy, religious, seminarians, synodal teams, and pastoral councils at the Basilica Cathedral of St. John, and dialogue on the challenges and hopes of the Peruvian people. In the afternoon he will preside over a prayer vigil with young people and university students at the National Stadium, followed by dinner with the bishops.
On Friday the 13th he will travel to Chiclayo, the diocese he pastored for eight years. He will celebrate Holy Mass in the esplanade of the Pampas de Pimentel, one of the largest celebrations planned, make a private visit to the San Óscar A. Romero Chapel, meet with the local clergy at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Peace and with the university community at the Catholic University Santo Toribio de Mogrovejo, and dine with the priests of the diocese.
On Saturday the 14th he will preside over the crowning rite of the Immaculate Virgin at the Cathedral of Santa María de Chiclayo and will travel by helicopter to Santa Cruz de Succhabamba, in Cajamarca, for a Mass. In the afternoon he will participate in the prayer meeting that closes the Jubilee Year of Santo Toribio de Mogrovejo.
On Sunday the 15th, in Cusco, he will meet with the faithful and representatives of popular piety at the Saqsaywaman National Archaeological Park and pray the Angelus in front of the Cathedral. He will then fly to Pucallpa, in Ucayali, where he will meet with missionaries and representatives of the Amazonian peoples at the Malecón Puerto Callao and celebrate Mass at the Villa Deportiva Regional. Finally, on Monday the 16th he will visit in Lima the House of Welcome of the Little Sisters of the Abandoned Elderly, preside over Holy Mass at the Las Palmas Air Base, and, after the farewell ceremony at Callao, depart for Rome.
The presence of Castro Castro, as president of the CEM, underscores the bonds of communion between the Churches of Mexico and Peru. For the Mexican episcopate, accompanying the Pope on this itinerary is an opportunity to strengthen ties, share pastoral experiences, and reinforce the unity of the Church on the continent at a time when the Church remains attentive to local challenges, including the violence that the bishop himself has denounced in Morelos, while looking toward the Latin American horizon of a pontificate marked by the Peruvian mission.