Pope Leo arrived in Uruguay on Friday to kick off a 12-day trip across South America expected to attract crowds in the millions, as the first US-born pope returns to a Catholic stronghold region where he lived for decades as a missionary.

Leo, who is 71 and underwent lung cancer surgery last month, will take part in 10 events across Uruguay until Sunday, when he travels to Argentina and Peru on one of the most demanding overseas tours taken by a Catholic leader in decades.

The pope was greeted at Montevideo’s Carrasco airport, under a partly cloudy afternoon sky by President Yamandu Orsi and two children bearing flowers.

Military officials in blue uniforms lined a red carpet as Leo descended the stairs from the aircraft bearing Uruguayan and Vatican flags.

The Vatican said this week the pope had completely healed from his operation and no special precautions were being taken for the tour, on which Leo will travel some 31,000 km (19,300 miles) across 10 cities and give 36 speeches.

Before landing in Montevideo, Leo told journalists aboard his flight that he feels “in fairly good shape” after his surgery, that he never doubted he would go ahead with the South America tour and that the experience reaffirmed his belief in healthcare as a human right.

“I know some people were doubtful about this trip taking place,” Leo told journalists aboard his flight from Rome to Uruguay, where he will open the first leg of an ambitious three-country tour featuring some 50 events across 10 cities.

The pope, who was born in Chicago but spent decades in Peru and became a Peruvian citizen, considers the tour a “homecoming to places where he spent a long time and to which he feels closely connected,” said Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni.

Leo told journalists on his flight that he wished to share “God’s message of peace (and) goodwill for all people” during the trip.

He also said he had made a historic choice to cast a ballot by mail in the US midterm elections because he is proud to be a US citizen.

POPE EXPECTED TO ADDRESS REGIONAL INSTABILITY

The pope will visit three cities in Uruguay. His itinerary opens on Friday afternoon with a visit to Montevideo’s main Independence Square, long a site of political demonstrations, where he will give a speech to Orsi and other leaders.

Leo, who has forcefully decried the direction of global leadership in recent months, will address the governments in each of the three countries on the tour in closely watched speeches. He will also lead outdoor Masses at major local sites, visit a prison in Argentina and head to remote Andean communities in Peru by helicopter.

On Sunday, Leo will give an address to Argentine President Javier Milei, a libertarian seen as a close ally to US President Donald Trump, who lambasted Leo earlier this year after the pope criticized the Iran war.

Bruni said the pope’s speeches during the tour would address a range of issues facing the continent, including environmental destruction, arms trafficking and regional political instability.

“The pope brings a message of communion and unity, an invitation to recognise one another … as members of one same family,” he said.

The late Pope Francis, who was Leo’s predecessor and from Argentina, visited Peru in 2018 but never returned home. A pope has not visited Argentina or Uruguay since the late 1980s.

Argentine officials have said some 7 million people will attend events with Leo.

VATICAN NOT TAKING ADDITIONAL MEDICAL PRECAUTIONS

Latin America has long been the world’s largest Catholic region in absolute numbers, but the Church has been losing ground recently to fast-growing evangelical denominations and has struggled to respond to progressive social attitudes and individualized forms of worship.

Local Catholic leaders hope Leo’s visit can reenergize the faith across the region and also help repair the Church’s standing after abuse scandals tarnished its reputation.

Leo will hold several meetings with survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy during the trip, the Vatican has said, without yet providing further details.

The pope was treated in October for lung adenocarcinoma, the most common form of lung cancer. His doctors have said the disease was localized and he would not require any further treatments.

Bruni said Leo had recovered enough that no additional medical measures would be necessary during his trip.

Medical experts told Reuters the decision by Leo’s doctors to clear him to fly should indicate the risk of complications from his surgery was low, that his operated lung had fully expanded and any surgical wounds were healing without signs of infection.

They suggested, however, that Leo might need to take rest breaks to deal with the trip’s intense itinerary and consider using supplemental oxygen as needed, especially during his high-altitude visits in the Peruvian Andes.