Leo departed from Rome’s Fiumicino Airport early Friday, and is due to arrive in Uruguay at 4:30 p.m. local time (2:30 p.m. ET) for the country’s first papal visit since 1988.
Considered the most secular country in the region, where only a fraction of people go to Mass regularly, Uruguay was the first in the world to legalize marijuana for recreational use and the second country in Latin America to decriminalize abortion.
In October 2025, the country of just 3.5 million people became the first in the region to approve legislation for assisted dying despite strong opposition from the Catholic Church.
After Uruguay, Leo’s tour will take him to Argentina for three days, where he is expected to meet with right-wing President Javier Milei, a close ally of President Donald Trump.
It will be the first papal visit to Argentina since Pope John Paul II traveled to the country in 1987.
Leo’s immediate predecessor, Pope Francis, was born in Argentina, the first pontiff from the region, but he declined numerous invitations to return to his homeland.
The biggest crowds of the trip are likely next week during his six-day visit to Peru, where Leo is widely celebrated as a beloved national figure. He will stop off in the capital, Lima, before visiting his former diocese of Chiclayo, where he was ordained bishop in 2014 and remained until taking up a Vatican post in 2023.
Leo, who was treated last month for lung adenocarcinoma, the most common form of lung cancer, will also make several high-altitude visits in the Peruvian Andes.
Doctors have said that the disease was localized and that he would not require any further treatments; Bruni said Leo had recovered enough that no additional medical measures would be necessary during his trip.
Speaking at the same briefing Tuesday, Maria Montserrat Alvarado, the Vatican’s new communications chief, said Leo was grateful for the concern about his health and the demands the journey might make on him.
But, she said, he was “so excited” to make the trip.
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