Pope Leo heads to Peru, Argentina, Uruguay in November
Vatican City ― Pope Leo will undertake one of the most intense foreign trips by a Catholic leader in decades in November, leading some 50 events during an 11-day tour of Uruguay, Argentina and Peru, the Vatican said on Monday.
Leo will travel about 31,000km over the 10-city tour and give 36 speeches, including to Argentine President Javier Milei, a right-wing libertarian seen as a close ally to US President Donald Trump.
The first US pope attracted Trump’s ire earlier this year after criticising the Iran war.
Leo, who previously spent decades as a missionary in Peru, will also have dinner with the priests of Peru’s northwestern city of Chiclayo, where he served as bishop from 2015 to 2023.
Other events on the pope’s itinerary for the November 6-17 tour include a visit to a federal prison complex in Buenos Aires, a Mass at a famous Catholic shrine in Lujan, Argentina, and a special address “on the challenges and hopes for the future of the Peruvian people” in Lima.
Leo, originally from Chicago, also has Peruvian citizenship. The pope, 71, is relatively young for a pontiff and in good health. The South America trip will be his fifth tour outside Italy in 2026.
A Catholic pope has not visited South America since the late Pope Francis made a trip to Chile and Peru in 2018. Francis, originally from Argentina and the first pope from the Americas, never made a visit to his home country as pontiff.
Francis, who died in April 2025, made an even longer trip in September 2024, travelling nearly 33,000km across a 12-day tour of Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore.
However, the Argentine pontiff, then in precarious health and using a wheelchair, only held about 30 events on that tour.
Meanwhile the pontiff, who has warned of the risk that AI could lead the world down a path of unending war, on Monday urged the development of AI systems that do not foster divisions in society but strengthen peace initiatives.
“In a world marked by conflict and division, the development of artificial intelligence calls for a vision inspired by wisdom and charity,” the pontiff said in a message to a conference on AI issues held in Rome.
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The pope called for development of AI systems that “serve the dignity of every person and strengthen the bonds that unite the human family”.
Leo, the first US-born pope, has made addressing the possible dangers of AI development a major theme of his 16-month-old papacy, first discussing the issue publicly on his third day as pope.
In his first major document, issued in May, Leo warned that AI systems spread misinformation and prioritise conflict. He urged international regulation of the industry.
Monday’s conference, hosted at Rome’s Pontifical Lateran University, was titled “AI4Peace.” Speakers included US economist Jeffrey Sachs, Rome city council president Svetlana Celli and Francisco Rojas Aravena, rector of the UN’s University for Peace, based in Costa Rica.
Leo’s brief message was read aloud to attendees by Rev Andrea Ciucci, chancellor of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life.