Over two winter days at the Vatican, Pope Leo XIV returned — personally and pastorally — to a country that has shaped his priestly memory: Peru. Through the inauguration of new devotional images and a candid address to Peruvian bishops, the Pope traced a quiet but deliberate line between memory and mission, grounding the Church’s future in shared holiness and communion.
On Saturday, January 31, Leo XIV inaugurated a Marian mosaic and a statue of St. Rose of Lima in the Vatican Gardens. The images, offered by Peru, recalled a lived relationship between the Pope and the country whose people, faith, and history he spoke of with ease and affection.
Standing among diplomats, clergy, and artists, the Pope described the installation as a sign of the “deep bonds of faith and friendship” linking Peru and the Holy See. Those bonds, he emphasized, are spiritual before they are institutional — rooted in shared devotion, missionary history, and the witness of saints formed far from Rome but fully at home in the universal Church.
Peru invites the Pope home
The Pope, who lived in Peru for two decades and holds Peruvian citizenship, called the country “such a beloved place to me,” though he did not respond directly to the invitation.
In an unusual gesture, Leo stayed after the ceremony for a lunch hosted by the Peruvian Embassy, spending about an hour with Peruvian bishops and diplomats in the gardens.
St. Rose of Lima, the first canonized saint of the Americas, anchored the moment.
Alongside the Virgin Mary, she represents a holiness that does not withdraw from the world but is lived within it. Quoting Lumen gentium, Leo XIV reminded those present that the call to holiness belongs to every Christian, not as an abstract ideal but as the “perfection of charity” expressed in daily fidelity and service.
That same pastoral instinct shaped the Pope’s address the previous day to Peru’s bishops, gathered in Rome for their ad limina visit. Meeting them in the Consistory Hall on January 30, Leo XIV spoke without formality, recalling his own years of ministry in Peru and the resilience of its people’s faith. “The Pope carries them in his heart,” he said, asking the bishops to convey that closeness to their dioceses.
The timing, he noted, carried historical weight. The visit coincided with the 300th anniversary of the canonization of St. Toribio de Mogrovejo, whose missionary leadership helped shape the Church in Peru at its foundations. For Leo XIV, Toribio offers a pattern for the present: a Church that lives ad instar Apostolorum — in the manner of the Apostles — marked by simplicity, unity, and openness to God’s guidance.
Such an apostolic style, the Pope told the bishops, begins with communion. Unity among bishops, with priests, and with the People of God is not optional but essential to credible evangelization. The Gospel, he said, cannot be proclaimed effectively where there is rivalry, isolation, or self-promotion.
Like Toribio, pastors today must remain close to their people, especially the most vulnerable, sharing their burdens and hopes. Holiness, in this vision, takes on a pastoral shape: listening, accompanying, and serving without reserve.
Taken together, the Peruvian images in the Vatican Gardens and the ad limina address form a single narrative. Memory becomes responsibility; affection becomes mission. For Peru — and for the wider Church — Pope Leo XIV’s message is clear: holiness grows where communion is lived.
