Pope Leo XIV's November 2026 trip to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru

The Vatican announced the trip in September, saying Leo would retrace his steps as a missionary in Peru and visit Argentina, where his Argentine predecessor, Pope Francis, never returned.^[1] After the surgery some in the Vatican expected the trip to be postponed or its schedule cut back,^[5] but the Vatican confirmed in late October that doctors had found no medical reason to keep him from traveling.^[2] It said he would meet privately with survivors of clergy sexual abuse,^[6] and his visit to Argentina drew renewed scrutiny of abuse allegations there.^[7]

In Uruguay, the first papal visit in nearly four decades,^[4] Leo visited a Montevideo parish in a neighborhood hit by drug trafficking,^[8] called for health care to be accessible to everyone, recalling his own cancer diagnosis,^[9] and celebrated his first Mass in South America before an estimated 40,000 people in Paysandú, offering an ode to the region's mate tea.^[10][11] His cancer is followed in its own arc, and his September trip to France in another.