Pope León XIV departed Rome early in the morning on a journey that will take him to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru. The flight to Montevideo lasts roughly 13 hours. The 71-year-old pontiff undertakes the long trip only recently after surgery to remove cancer, a fact that has drawn attention to the physical demands of the tour.
About 80 journalists are travelling with the Vatican delegation, which underlines the scale of interest in the visit. The pope is expected to arrive in Montevideo in the afternoon, where he will be received by Uruguayan President Yamandú Orsi. It is the first visit by a pope to Uruguay in 38 years. The Vatican has said that no additional medical measures are planned and describes the pope as being in good health. Still, observers see the schedule as a test of his stamina, given how packed the itinerary is from the first day onward.
The Uruguayan programme is dense. On Saturday the pope is due to fly to Paysandú, a city in the interior of the country, where he will celebrate Mass in a city park. He will then return to Montevideo for an official welcome at Plaza Independencia and a speech to the country's authorities. The day is to close with vespers at the Montevideo cathedral, attended by clergy and seminarians, a gathering that places the Church's own community at the centre of the visit.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin has framed the trip around social polarisation in Latin America, a theme he presents as the context for the whole tour. According to the Vatican's stated purpose, the Church's mission on the journey is centred on unity, peace and dialogue. Uruguay is one of the most secular countries in the region: more than 40 percent of its population declares no religion. The Vatican acknowledges this secularisation but does not regard it as changing the Church's mission, and the visit is presented as an invitation to dialogue rather than a bid to reverse those trends.
The Argentine leg carries a particular emotional weight. Argentines have long wished for a visit by the Successor of Peter, and the trip is expected to honour Pope Francis, who was Argentine but never returned to his homeland as pope. For many Argentine Catholics the visit fills a gap that has been felt since Francis's election. The stop in Peru is framed as a return for a pontiff who knew and loved the country, and it completes a tour that links three nations of the Southern Cone and the Andes under a single pastoral journey.