Pope thanks crowds on emotional return to ‘second home’ in Peru’s Chiclayo

“As I look at your faces, a prayer of thanksgiving to the Lord arises in my heart for the blessing you have been and continue to be in my life,” he said. About 500,000 people gathered for Mass at Pampas de Pimentel, a desert park just outside of Peru’s fourth-largest city, according to estimates from the Vatican, while another million lined his motorcade route.

In Chiclayo, a coastal city of about 620,000, Leo earned a reputation for staying close to poor communities during times of crisis, including when the region was hit with devastating floods and the COVID-19 pandemic. Some had camped overnight to see him, while others walked in the hot sun to avoid bumper-to-bumper traffic to get to the open-air Mass.

As he rode in his popemobile, people in the crowd waved yellow and white Vatican flags and shouted, “The pope is from Chiclayo.” Originally from Chicago and formerly known as Robert Francis Prevost, Leo also holds Peruvian citizenship and declared the country his homeland on Wednesday.