Pope Leo XIV Laments Violence During Peru Visit

Pope Leo XIV prayed Saturday for an end to the violence that is ravaging Peru as he addressed one of the most pressing issues in his adopted homeland from the seat of his former cathedral.

Leo celebrated a special ritual at Chiclayo’s cathedral, entrusting his pontificate to the Virgin Mary, before heading to the far-flung edge of his former diocese, in the lush green mountains of Santa Cruz de Succhabamba. He traveled by helicopter to the city, located 150 kilometers (93 miles) from downtown Chiclayo at an altitude of 2,035 meters (6,675 feet).

Before leaving, Leo presided over a special prayer at the Cathedral of St. Mary, where he served as bishop of Chiclayo from 2014 until 2023. He referred to the “darkness” enveloping Peru, a reference to rising crime that has battered Peruvians at a time of political instability.

“We feel threatened by the uncertainty of widespread violence and by the unspeakable suffering that continues to afflict so many of our brothers and sisters,” Leo said in the cathedral. “Yet, despite this darkness, which so often dims our hope and weakens our trust, God’s gift continues to shine before our eyes.”

Over the past five years, the homicide rate has nearly doubled, from 5.8 to 10.7 per 100,000 people. Reports of extortion rose from 2,421 in 2019 to 26,734 in 2025, according to official data.

Leo spoke especially of violence against women in one of his first encounters in Lima, denouncing the “machismo” in Peruvian culture and demanding that women be respected and protected from rising rates of feminicides. Gender-based violence is an urgent social issue in Peru, which recorded 1,261 femicide victims between 2016 and 2024, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Informatics. The annual number of women killed because of their gender rose by 44% over that period.

Peru is also grappling with illegal gold mining and is the second-largest producer of coca leaves — the raw material for cocaine — trailing only Colombia, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

Leo, who arrived to a joyous welcome in Chiclayo on Friday, is expected to address those scourges when he meets with Amazonian and Indigenous peoples on Sunday. He will celebrate a final Mass in Lima on Monday before returning to the Vatican.

Sources

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