PHOTOS: Pope Leo XIV returns to Peru where he once served as bishop
Pope Leo XIV returned to Peru, where he served for years before becoming pope and was appointed bishop of Chiclayo in 2015. On his first full day in the country, he met with Peruvian bishops, prayed at Lima’s cathedral, and joined a public meeting with civil leaders and citizens. He also attended a prayer vigil with young people at Lima’s National Stadium as part of his South American papal trip.
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Pope Leo XIV spent his first full day of his Peru visit on Nov. 12, 2026, meeting Church leaders and citizens and taking part in public events in Lima. The visit was a return to a country where he had served for years before becoming pope.
Leo first served in Peru in 1985, as Father Robert Prevost, and held several roles there before being appointed bishop of Chiclayo in 2015. The article describes Peru as the country he called home for years.
The day’s program included a meeting with Peruvian bishops at the archbishop’s palace and midday prayer at the Cathedral Basilica of St. John the Apostle and Evangelist. Leo also attended a public meeting with leaders and citizens focused on the challenges and hopes of the Peruvian people.
That evening, he arrived at Lima’s National Stadium for a prayer vigil with young people. Photos showed him greeting people and becoming emotional during the gathering.
Peru was the final country on Leo’s South American papal journey, following visits to Uruguay and Argentina. He was expected to spend several days in Peru before returning to Rome.
Local episcopal ministry and universal papal leadership
Local episcopal ministry and universal papal leadership are not competing layers of authority. In Catholic teaching, a diocesan bishop truly shepherds his own particular Church with authority proper to his office, while the Pope serves as the visible center of unity and possesses universal pastoral authority. The bishop is not merely the Pope’s local agent; nor is a diocese an independent church. The two ministries belong together in the communion of the Church.
A diocese is a particular Church: a local realization of the one Catholic Church, entrusted to a bishop. The bishop is its “visible principle and foundation of unity,” and exercises pastoral government over the people committed to his care. His responsibility includes teaching and governing that Church, not simply carrying out instructions as a representative of someone else.
The Second Vatican Council’s teaching, as explained by John Paul II, is explicit that bishops “are not to be considered vicars of the Roman Pontiffs” because they possess authority proper to their office. This means the bishop’s ministry is genuinely his own as successor of the apostles and shepherd of his diocese.
That authority is described as ordinary, proper, and immediate. In simple terms, it belongs to the bishop’s office, is exercised in his own name rather than as a substitute for another authority, and is directly concerned with the pastoral care of his diocese. But it is not unlimited: the exercise of the bishop’s power is subject to the Church’s universal laws and to matters that law or a decree of the Pope reserves to a higher authority.
The Pope, as Bishop of Rome and successor of Peter, is the visible principle of unity both for the bishops and for the faithful. The Council teaches that he has full, supreme, and universal power over the Church and is free to exercise that power by virtue of his office as pastor of the whole Church.
This universal ministry is not merely an administrative service reaching dioceses from outside. Catholic teaching describes the Pope’s ministry as belonging to the life of each particular Church “from within”: a diocese is fully Catholic in communion with the universal Church and its visible center of unity. The Pope’s role is therefore not an optional connection added to an otherwise self-sufficient local church.
At the same time, universal leadership does not make diocesan bishops mere delegates. John Paul II teaches that a bishop’s proper governance and authentic teaching are inherent parts of the Church’s life. Their exercise is joined to hierarchical communion with the Pope and the College of Bishops; this communion, he says, reinforces rather than weakens episcopal authority.
The relationship is not simply “Pope above, bishops below.” Catholic teaching also speaks of the College of Bishops: all bishops together, united with the Pope as their head. The college has authority over the universal Church only together with the Pope and never apart from him. Thus, the Pope’s primacy and the bishops’ shared responsibility are both part of the Church’s structure.
“The individual bishops, who are placed in charge of particular churches, exercise their pastoral government over the portion of the People of God committed to their care, and not over other churches nor over the universal Church.”
That distinction clarifies the scope of a diocesan bishop’s jurisdiction: he governs his own diocese, not other dioceses or the universal Church. Yet he is not indifferent to the whole Church. Each bishop, as a member of the episcopal college and successor of the apostles, is obliged to be solicitous for the universal Church. This wider concern includes promoting the unity of faith and common discipline and caring especially for the poor, suffering, and persecuted. Such solicitude benefits the whole Church, though it is not itself an exercise of jurisdiction over other dioceses.
The local Church and the universal Church should not be understood as separate institutions, or as a collection of independent dioceses that later form a federation. The Church is genuinely present in each particular Church, while the universal Church is not simply the sum of those local communities. John Paul II describes a “mutual interiority” between them: each diocese is truly Church, and its life is inseparable from the communion and unity of the whole Church.
This is why the bishop’s authority and the Pope’s primacy are not alternatives. The bishop gives visible pastoral leadership to the local Church; the Pope’s ministry and the communion of bishops ensure that local life remains joined to the universal Church in faith and unity. The relationship is one of distinct responsibilities within a single ecclesial communion—not local independence on one side or the reduction of bishops to papal delegates on the other.