Pope Leo XIV returns to Peru to a big welcome, calls it his 'homeland'

Pope Leo XIV opened the Peruvian leg of his South America tour on Wednesday, telling crowds in Lima that returning to the country where he served for two decades felt like coming home.

The Vatican estimated that about 3 million people lined his motorcade route, the Associated Press reported.

Leo holds Peruvian citizenship and spent more than two decades in Peru as a missionary priest and later as bishop of the northern city of Chiclayo before becoming pope.

Also a US citizen, he is the first pope from either the United States or Peru.

He sang Peru's national anthem with President Keiko Fujimori at the presidential palace.

"Today I understand how much of this land remains with me and how much of my own story also belongs to you," he said, adding that he was "also returning to my homeland."

Leo urged Peruvians to "cultivate honesty, integrity," and to accept that "no one has all the answers."

He also called for stronger disaster prevention in a country regularly hit by El Nino-linked floods and landslides.

Fujimori said Peru must face the “unfinished task” of reconciliation after decades of insurgent violence, state abuses and sharp political divisions.

The welcome comes as many Peruvians are weary of their leaders.

The country has had nine presidents since July 2016, and homicide rates have nearly doubled in five years.

Political science professor Alonso Cardenas told AP he sees "no sign of a reaction, no strategy" from Fujimori's government.

Notably, the Catholic Church is more credible than any other Peruvian institution, theology professor Veronique Lecaros told AP, even as Pew data show Catholics falling from 76% of the population to about 67%.

Leo's six-day stay includes a trip to 3,700 meters (about 12,140 feet), considered risky after Leo had part of a lung removed in mid-October because of a malignant tumor. He is due back at the Vatican on November 17.