To cheers of “the Pope is Peruvian!,” an estimated three million people lined the highway for the entire 20-km route on which Pope Leo XIV traveled late Wednesday afternoon from the airport in Callao to Lima, the nation’s capital. The Pope began his pastoral ministry in 1985 in Peru, where he served for over 20 years, first as priest, and then as bishop, taking on dual citizenship of the U.S. and Peru when he became a Bishop. He was beloved as a pastor, and famed for his extraordinary efforts to save lives during the COVID pandemic. He organized the distribution of food and other necessities to poor families, and then, when the country faced a severe shortage of oxygen tanks, he initiated the “Oxygen of Hope” project which established two oxygen plants, which provided free oxygen tanks for the sick.

A constant theme—in both his address to authorities, civil society and the diplomatic corps on Wednesday night, and to some 40,000 people invited to a “Meeting on the Challenges and Hopes for the Future of the Peruvian People” held today outside Lima’s main cathedral in the Plaza de Armas—was that of building harmony out of diversity, through listening and dialogue aimed at securing the common good of all.

“At the center of every social, economic and political organization must be the human person, created in the image and likeness of God, endowed with infinite dignity and called to live in relationship with others,” he told those gathered in the Plaza. “The centrality of human dignity is the foundation for other essential principles that should guide personal, family, business and institutional decisions, such as the common good, solidarity and subsidiarity.”

In speaking to the government officials and others at his first meeting, he held up Peru as an example of unity forged from diversity. “Peru has a history stretching back thousands of years, shaped by peoples of diverse languages and traditions. Part of that history continues to be told in Quechua, Aymara, and the languages of the Amazon,” he reminded. “Over the centuries, other heritages have been woven into it, including the Afro-Peruvian and Asian-Peruvian traditions, which have also helped shape the country’s identity. Nearly five hundred years ago, the proclamation of the Gospel opened a decisive chapter in that history...