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Pope Leo to begin first Latin America trip amid falling Catholic share
Reuters reports Pope Leo will start an 11-day tour of Uruguay, Argentina and Peru on Friday, weeks after lung-cancer surgery, as Pew data show fewer adults identifying as Catholic.
- New headline Was: “Pope Leo readies to visit a Latin America where Catholicism is on the decline”
- Our desk filed its story
Based on reporting by Reuters
Pope Leo is due to begin his first trip to Latin America as pontiff on Friday, an 11-day itinerary the Vatican said remains unchanged weeks after surgery for lung cancer, according to Reuters reporting datelined Montevideo1.
The schedule, Nov. 6-17, runs about 19,260 miles from Uruguay to Argentina, the homeland of the late Pope Francis, then to Peru, where Leo served as a missionary and bishop and later became a citizen1.
Reuters said he is to spend two days in Uruguay, three in Argentina and nearly a week in Peru, with outdoor Masses, meetings with political leaders, youth vigils and helicopter visits to remote Andean communities1.
Latin America remains the world's largest Catholic region by numbers, the report said, but a 2024 Pew Research Center survey of six of the region's most populous countries found fewer people identifying as Catholic than a decade earlier, with about one-fifth of adults in each country saying they were raised Catholic and had left1.
The same reporting attributed the shift to evangelical growth, changing social attitudes and more individualized worship, while noting belief in God remains widespread; parish priests in Córdoba and Montevideo described social-media outreach and a rise in Mass and sacrament demand ahead of the visit1.
