APTOPIX Vatican Pope

Pope Leo XIV is embarking on the longest and farthest trip of his pontificate three weeks after lung cancer surgery. The U.S.-born Leo is returning home to Peru, where the former Robert Prevost lived for two decades as a missionary priest and learned to be the pastor he is today. Leo is also going to Argentina, the home of his predecessor, Pope Francis. It will be a homecoming of sorts there, too, since Francis never returned to Argentina after his 2013 election, leaving a complicated legacy that Leo will now have to navigate. Leo starts his journey Friday in Uruguay, the least Catholic, most secular country in all of Latin America.

Pope Leo XIV is kicking off a three-nation tour of Latin America with a visit to Uruguay, the region’s least Catholic and most secular country. The trip comes three weeks after he underwent lung cancer surgery that had put the entire trip into question. Leo is due to arrive in Montevideo after more than 13 flight from Rome. He has a packed three-day itinerary including a visit to a neighborhood plagued by gang violence and a Mass in Paysandú, some 320 miles from the capital and another Mass in Florida, about 60 miles away.  Vatican officials say his stamina is “fantastic” and that he's eager to get on the road.