The Peruvian government has established a tourist route connecting dozens of landmarks associated with Pope Leo XIV’s decades-long mission in Peru, in a joint effort with the Church and the tourism industry to draw visitors. Source: NCR Online.
The tourist initiative, called “Los Caminos del Papa León XIV” (In the Footsteps of Pope Leo XIV), is headed by the Peruvian Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism, which pledged the government will invest $US150 million ($232 million) in church renovations, museums expansions, and roads.
“This is a route that not only runs through streets or churches, but also through the memory, faith, and hope of a people who never stopped dreaming, and who today can proudly say that we have a Peruvian Pope,” Peruvian President Dina Boluarte said at the launching ceremony in July.
The route includes circuits in four different regions – Piura, Lambayeque, La Libertad, and Callao – and encompasses 35 tourist attractions.
The circuits are centred around religious locations that were significant for Fr and later Bishop Prevost during his pastoral work in Peru.
In Piura, for example, the route includes the parish of San José Obrero (St. Joseph the Worker), in Chulucanas, where Fr Prevost took his first steps with his mentor, Fr John McKniff, servant of God, whose sainthood cause is open.
The circuit also encompasses the local pastoral centre and the formation centre Villa la Buena Nueva (Good News village), a pre-seminary in which Fr Prevost educated and motivated many religious men.
In the region of La Libertad, the thematic circuit includes visits to the Archdiocese of Trujillo, where Fr Prevost acted as a judicial vicar, and the Convent of San Tomás de Villanueva, which was his home for nearly 10 years.
In Lambayeque, home of the Diocese of Chiclayo, four circuits were defined, encompassing 22 attractions.
One of the circuits includes visits to the Chiclayo Cathedral, to the church of St Peter in the town of Monsefu and St Mary Magdalene Church in the city of Eten.
“For Peru’s Catholics, the fact that the Pope has Peruvian nationality is something very special. So, the places that marked his mission in our country must be celebrated,” Fr. Fidel Purisaca Vigil, Chiclayo’s diocesan spokesperson, told OSV News.
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New tourist route in honour of Pope Leo XIV to draw visitors to Peru (By Eduardo Campos Lima, OSV News via NCR Online)
