At papal Mass in Peru, Pope Leo XIV praises the evangelists of the Andes
Pope Leo XIV celebrated an open-air Mass in Santa Cruz de Succhabamba, Peru, praising generations of missionaries who brought the faith to the Andean region. More than 20,000 people attended, many traveling from rural communities; Leo described their journeys as pilgrimages of faith. The pontiff encouraged prayer and peaceful action in the pursuit of social justice.
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Pope Leo XIV celebrated Mass on Nov. 14 in the Andean town of Santa Cruz de Succhabamba, honoring generations of missionaries and urging worshippers to pair prayer with peaceful efforts to address poverty and injustice. More than 20,000 people attended, according to local authorities.
Leo, who spent two decades as a missionary in Peru, traveled by military helicopter to the remote mountain area of his former diocese. In his homily, he recalled missionaries who arrived with few provisions to spread Christianity and devotion to the Lord of Miracles of Andabamba and the Immaculate Mother.
He praised the region’s popular faith, saying it had grown through daily Gospel values and traditions and festivals that bring communities and generations together. He also described the journeys many worshippers made from rural communities as a “pilgrimage of faith.”
Addressing a largely poor congregation, Leo encouraged people to pray without losing heart while also working to relieve hardship. He pointed to economically driven migration from rural areas and unequal distribution of natural resources as challenges facing the region.
He warned that discouragement, resentment, and violence would not bring progress or peace. Instead, he urged prayer, patience, perseverance in denouncing wrongdoing, and determined work for change, linking faith and prayer with commitment to others.
The pope also praised farmers, shopkeepers, small-business owners, and others who use their skills to provide dignified work and serve their communities. His remarks came against the backdrop of his missionary years in Peru during the 1980s and 1990s, when he witnessed and protested both left-wing terrorism and right-wing counterterrorism.
Later that day, Leo was scheduled to address a prayer meeting in Chiclayo at the shrine of St. Turibius de Mogrovejo, the Spanish missionary who served as archbishop of Lima from 1581 until his death in 1606.
Evangelization integrates indigenous cultures, faith, and social justice
The statement captures a central Catholic principle: evangelization should take root in the life and culture of Indigenous peoples, while bringing them into communion with Christ and standing with them in the pursuit of justice. These elements belong together. But integration does not mean treating every cultural practice as compatible with the Gospel, or reducing evangelization to social activism: the Church receives and strengthens what is good, discerns what needs purification, and proclaims Christ as the measure of that discernment.
In Catholic teaching, this process is often called inculturation: the Gospel is expressed and lived within a people’s language, customs, and communal life, rather than being identified with the culture of the missionaries who first preached it. Pope John Paul II taught that evangelization does not destroy Indigenous values but can “incarnate” itself in them, strengthening what is good. The Church’s encounter with Indigenous peoples can also enrich the universal Church, as their faithful witness and cultural traditions contribute to its life.
That cultural respect is not the same as uncritical acceptance. The Gospel also challenges practices or beliefs that contradict human dignity and Christian morality. The Pontifical Council for Culture describes this as the Church’s work of receiving what is good in cultures while purifying and elevating it, and of rejecting what is sinful. Inculturation is therefore both receptive and discerning: Christianity takes culturally particular forms, but the content of the faith is not replaced by local custom.
The phrase also rightly links evangelization with justice. John Paul II argued that the Church cannot remain silent when Indigenous communities face marginalization or violations of legitimate rights, including rights relating to land, work, education, and participation in public life. He described the Church’s role as accompanying communities peacefully but resolutely in the recognition and promotion of their dignity and rights.
Pope Francis makes the connection explicit in Querida Amazonia: where poverty and neglect shape people’s lives, inculturation necessarily includes a strong social dimension and the defence of human rights. He presents work for the advancement of those who are neglected as a commitment to the justice of God’s kingdom, not as an optional addition to religious ministry.
“from the heart of the Gospel we see the profound connection between evangelization and human advancement”.
This connection does not mean that the Church’s mission is simply political, or that every proposed political solution is thereby endorsed. The International Theological Commission warns against neglecting justice because some approaches may combine political and religious aims in problematic ways. Instead, it calls for careful discernment, guided by faith, while insisting that the promotion of justice remains urgent.
The statement should not suggest that Indigenous communities are merely recipients of missionary activity. John Paul II praised Indigenous Christians who became witnesses and evangelizers within their own communities, and taught that their traditions could be strengthened and enriched by the Gospel. The encounter is therefore not one-directional: Indigenous Christians receive and express the faith, contribute to the Church, and help the wider community recognize values present in their traditions.
At the same time, the Catholic understanding remains explicitly Christ-centred. The Gospel is not simply a label attached to pre-existing customs; it proclaims Jesus Christ and invites people to follow him. The Church’s task is to support authentic cultural expression while ensuring that Christian life is not reduced to cultural identity or detached from the substance of the faith.
Taken together, the sources support the summary’s central idea: faithful evangelization honours Indigenous cultures, proclaims Christ within them, and responds concretely to injustice affecting Indigenous peoples. The phrase alone, however, does not identify a particular event, community, or policy, so its application to any specific news story remains undetermined.