LIMA, Peru (OSV News) — Pope Leo XIV underlined the need for women to be treated with respect in a speech outside the Lima cathedral Nov. 12 that touched on the issues of domestic violence, division of labor in the home, and families in crisis.
“I would like to renew an ardent appeal, not only to my brothers and sisters in the faith but to every man and woman of good will: let us value women! Let us protect and respect girls!” he said in the speech outside Lima’s Cathedral Basilica of St. John the Apostle and Evangelist, to the applause from those gathered.
“It pains us to see that violence against women — who could be our grandmothers, mothers, sisters or daughters — continues to be a reality that wounds all of humanity,” he said.
“Recognition of human dignity also requires that we effectively promote the presence, respect and participation of women,” he underlined. “Their contribution to every sphere of society and the Church is indispensable,” the pope stressed, adding that “it is sad to see that machismo persists, manifested in the absence of fathers from family life, in abuse and violence against women.”
The pope also said that he wanted to draw attention to the many mothers “who often suffer and feel alone, having to face numerous difficulties in raising their children.”
“Living the truth of our identities as male and female does not justify an unequal sharing
of domestic responsibilities or the subordination of one spouse to the other.”
The pope spoke in the Plaza de Armas at a gathering on the challenges and hopes for the future of Peru, saying that “today many families are wounded and divided due to economic problems or emigration. Others are harmed by the intrusion of addictions, such as gambling and betting, alcoholism and drug addiction, abuse or domestic violence.”
“God loves all families, especially those going through crises,” Pope Leo underlined.
Urging work-life balance from employers, Pope Leo said: “It is therefore necessary for legitimate authority to help business owners and workers by establishing a just legal framework and ensuring a reasonable balance among work, rest and family life.”
In the plaza, Pope Leo listened to musical performances and heard testimonies from a family, an entrepreneur, and an Indigenous woman before he spoke to the crowd about the challenges and hopes for the future of Peru.
“Just structures are necessary, but they are not enough. We also need hearts that are honest in seeking the common good, so as to overcome corruption, violence and individualism,” he said.
Peruvian pope understanding his people
Father Elías Paredes Inga, a Peruvian priest associated with the Missionaries of the Reconciliation of the Lord of Miracles, told OSV News that “This visit by the Pope is truly a major event for the Catholic faith throughout Peru. Since the Pope is Peruvian” — and “he is Peruvian” — the priest underlined — “he knows our land, our Catholic faith, and the challenges we face here in the country.”
The priest added: “We believe his presence and his message will be vital in addressing the social issues we are dealing with. … We believe his presence will help inspire us all to commit ourselves, as brothers and sisters, to building a better country.”
The pope Peruvians claim as their own sang along to “Contigo Peru´” — an unofficial national anthem uniting Peruvians — as the meeting in front of the cathedral came to an end, and earlier the 40,000 estimated participants chanted: “León, amigo, el pueblo esta contigo,” — “Leo, our friend, the people are with you!”
“You make me feel at home. Thank you very much!” Pope Leo emphasized clearly happy to be addressing the people he knows so well.
Prayer with bishops, priests, religious, seminarians, and laity
Before delivering the speech, Pope Leo led the prayer of the Divine Office inside the Lima cathedral, with the crowd bursting into applause as he entered. “La Iglesia en comunión con el Papa León” — “The Church in communion with Pope Leo” — the crowd cheered.
The historic cathedral was filled with priests, religious sisters, seminarians, bishops, and lay members of synodal teams and parish councils as the pope led the congregation in midday prayer.
“It is a great joy for me to be once again on Peruvian soil, close to this Church which is so dear to me. I come as a father and brother in the faith, as a shepherd who loves his flock,” Pope Leo told the congregation.
“I first came to Peru many years ago, sent to serve the People of God and build up his Kingdom, and to promote peace through justice, with particular concern for the weakest. I return today to encourage you to continue the work of spreading the Gospel, attentive to people’s lives and needs,” he added.
He encouraged Catholics in Peru to build “a civilization of love truly grounded on the common good,” and to be ready to accept responsibilities for the Church’s own failures. The pope is expected to meet with victims of clerical abuse during his visit to the country.
Pope Leo said that the Church needs to be “ready to acknowledge its own infidelities and humbly ask forgiveness, accepting responsibility for the wounds it has caused both within the community and around it.”
“Peru needs a Church that, clinging to the Cross, also knows how to face conflicts with charity and courage, confident that in Christ it is always possible to begin again and find unity,” he said.
Missionaries present to pray with missionary pope
Many missionaries, like Pope Leo when he was in Peru, were inside the cathedral to pray with the pope.
Among them was American Sister Mary Regina Matulka of Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, originally from Philadelphia — who has served as a missionary in Peru for 10 years and is currently serving as a teacher of kindergarten students at Villa María Academy in La Planicie.
“Our community is very excited. Our friends in the United States are watching every movement along with the sisters here. And, it’s really exciting to know that the pope wanted to return here to Peru, (and) was emotional yesterday … when he sang the national anthem. And it really touches our hearts,” she told OSV News.
She said that several of the sisters in her congregation met then-Bishop Robert Prevost when he was apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Callao.
“They were most impressed with his love for the poor and his commitment to the people here in Peru,” she said. “Especially … the poor people. He has a true love for them.”
Maria Aparecida Dantas do Nascimento, a 40-year-old lay missionary from Brazil, serves with the Shalom Catholic community evangelizing young people in Peru.
“It is a great joy to welcome the pope, and I believe it is a time of many blessings and many graces for us. Welcoming the pope here in Lima — and knowing that he is, in a sense, Peruvian, because he lived here — is a great grace for me,” she said.
Meeting with bishops
The pope arrived at the cathedral on foot after meeting with the Peruvian bishops. He walked from the archbishops’ residence, where he had told bishops: “In 2018 I was seated among you in this very place, and we received from our beloved Pope Francis a passionate exhortation to work for unity. I recall that he told us: ‘Do not remain prisoners of divisions that create cliques and hamper our vocation to be a sacrament of communion … That was — and is and always will be — the best way to evangelize.’ Indeed, communion among you, among us, is the foundation of the credibility of the Gospel you proclaim.”
He was welcomed to the cathedral by Cardinal Carlos Gustavo Castillo Mattasoglio, the archbishop of Lima. Upon his arrival inside the cathedral, Pope Leo prayed in the cathedral’s Chapel of St. Turibius of Mogrovejo, venerating the relics of a saint to whom he prayed when he became bishop of Chiclayo, Peru, a decade ago.
Pope Leo praised St. Turibius during the cathedral visit, calling him “a tireless, enterprising and creative apostle, a courageous defender of the poor and a generous shepherd, ready to pour himself out for his flock.”
Packed schedule in his beloved land
The history of the Lima cathedral goes back nearly 500 years with Francisco Pizarro, whose tomb is located inside the basilica, laying the cornerstone of the original church in 1535. Pope Paul III erected the Diocese of Lima in 1541. The cathedral was destroyed several times by earthquakes and rebuilt again.
In the evening, the pope will lead a youth prayer vigil in the National Stadium of Peru.
Pope Leo XIV is visiting Peru Nov. 11-16, the final and longest leg of the first trip to Latin America of his pontificate, which has included stops in Uruguay and Argentina.
The 71-year-old pope has a packed schedule for the visit to a country where he once served as an Augustinian missionary priest and later as bishop. In addition to Lima, Pope Leo will also visit Chiclayo, where he will celebrate a large outdoor Mass; Cusco, the former Inca capital in the Andes; and Pucallpa, a city on the Ucayali River in the Amazon rainforest that has long been a center of Catholic missionary outreach.
He will briefly return to Lima to spend the night and celebrate Mass in Callao before traveling back to Rome, where he will arrive on Nov. 17.
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Courtney Mares is Vatican editor for OSV News. Follow her on X @catholicourtney.
