The Peruvian government has declared compensable non-working days for public and private sector workers during the visit of Pope Leo XIV to Peru, scheduled from November 11 to 16, 2026. The measure, set out in a supreme decree published in the official gazette El Peruano, applies only in the regions the pontiff will visit and only on the specific days of his itinerary.
For Lima and Callao, the non-working days fall on November 11, 12 and 16. In Cajamarca, La Libertad, Lambayeque and Piura, the measure applies on November 13 and 14, while in Cusco and Ucayali it applies on November 15. The decree is signed by President Keiko Fujimori, Chief of Cabinet Luis Galarreta and Labor Minister Juan Sheput.
In the public sector, the days are declared non-working and compensable. In the private sector, the application requires an agreement between employer and workers; if no agreement is reached, the employer decides. In either case, the hours not worked must be recovered, according to the decree.
The visit has been organised by the Peruvian Church. Monsignor Guillermo Inca Pereda, national coordinator of the apostolic visit, outlined the programme to RPP. The pope's plane is due to land at Grupo Aéreo N.º 8 in Callao at 5:30 p.m. on November 11. He will then visit President Fujimori at the Government Palace and meet authorities, civil society and the diplomatic corps at the Gran Teatro Nacional.
On November 12 in Lima, the pope is scheduled to meet bishops, clergy, religious sisters, seminarians and synodal teams, and to take part in a morning meeting on the challenges and hopes for the future of the Peruvian people. In the afternoon he will preside over a prayer vigil with young people and university students, ending the day with a fraternal dinner with Peruvian bishops. Inca Pereda said Lima would be a space where historical memory becomes a national project.
On November 13 the pope will travel to Chiclayo to celebrate a mass before a large crowd on the esplanades of Pimentel, visit the San Óscar Romero chapel and meet clergy, pastoral teams and the university community at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Peace. On November 14, after the crowning of the Virgin in the Chiclayo Cathedral, he will visit the Andean community of Santa Cruz de Succhubamba, which the church presents as a tribute to rural Peru. The day closes with a prayer gathering marking 300 years since the canonisation of Saint Toribio de Mogrovejo.
On November 15 the pope will travel to Cusco to meet the faithful and representatives of popular piety at Sacsayhuamán, then lead the Angelus in the Plaza de Armas. The same afternoon he will fly to Pucallpa to meet missionaries and representatives of Amazonian peoples and celebrate mass at the Villa Deportiva in the Ucayali region before returning to Lima. Inca Pereda said the Cusco visit connects the pope with Andean Catholicism and its blend of indigenous memory, Catholic tradition and local culture, while Pucallpa turns attention to the Amazon, a territory of growing geopolitical importance for Peru and the wider world.
The programme concludes on Monday, November 16, with a visit to the home of the Little Sisters of the Abandoned Elderly in Callao and a closing mass at 10:30 a.m. at the Las Palmas Air Base in Surco, before the pope returns to Rome. Inca Pereda also explained the visit's official motto, « Abramos el corazón » (Let us open our hearts), and its emblem, which combines the outline of the country, the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the legacy of Peruvian saints including Santa Rosa de Lima, San Martín de Porres, Santo Toribio de Mogrovejo, San Juan Macías and San Francisco Solano.