Pope Leo warns of community pressures during visit to remote Peruvian village

Pope Leo XIV has warned that migration, falling birth rates and unequal access to resources are putting communities under pressure, during a visit to a remote Andean village in northern Peru that drew a crowd far larger than its resident population.

About 20,000 people gathered in Santa Cruz de Succhabamba, according to the Vatican, although around 6,000 people live in the village. At an outdoor Mass, Leo spoke of “the suffering of those who are forced to leave their homeland in search of a better future” and of villages being emptied by declining birth rates.

The village is in Cajamarca, where more than 40% of people live in poverty, the highest proportion in Peru, according to official data cited by the BBC. The region has also seen extensive internal migration: 729,000 people born there now live elsewhere in the country.

Leo served as bishop of the Diocese of Chiclayo, which includes Santa Cruz, from 2015 to 2023. He visited the village several times a year during that period. On Saturday, he arrived by helicopter and later told parishioners he felt “joy” at returning. “It is like a very big dream that the Lord has allowed this servant to come here,” he said.

The visit is part of the Pope’s 12-day tour of Latin America, his first since his election in May 2025. Peru is its longest stop; Leo lived in the country for long periods between 1985 and 2023 and became a Peruvian citizen in 2015. He is due to leave Chiclayo on Sunday for Cusco and a visit to Peru’s Amazon region, before returning to Rome on Monday.

The stop follows a large welcome for Leo near Chiclayo, where he was bishop and built ties with local communities.