Every Stop a Marian Stop: Pope Leo XIV in Latin America

The Vatican has released Pope Leo XIV's schedule for his first apostolic voyage to Latin America. It runs November 6–17, 2026, covering three countries — Uruguay, Argentina, and Peru. Ten public Masses. Three youth prayer vigils. Meetings with heads of state, interfaith leaders, and Catholic communities across the continent.

The trip does not include Mexico. But it does include a striking number of Marian stops, and the timing overlaps a Guadalupe Jubilee Year that opened on October 12.

The itinerary — Marian highlights

Uruguay · November 6–8

Nov 7 – Paysandú: Mass at Parque París Londres, 10 a.m.
Nov 7 – Montevideo: Youth prayer vigil at Centenary Stadium, 7 p.m.
Nov 7 – Montevideo: Visit to the parish of Our Lady of Guadalupe — one of the few Marian shrines in the region dedicated specifically to the tilma image
Nov 8 – Florida: Cathedral Basilica Mass, 10 a.m.

Argentina · November 8–11

Nov 9 – Buenos Aires: Mass at Monumento de los Españoles, 11:30 a.m.
Nov 10 – Córdoba: Mass at the Military Aviation School
Nov 11 – Buenos Aires: Mass at the Basilica of Our Lady of Luján — the national Marian shrine of Argentina, and one of the most visited pilgrimage sites in South America

Peru · November 11–17

Nov 13 – Chiclayo: Mass near Pampas de Pimentel, 10:30 a.m.; visit to the Shrine of Our Lady of Peace
Nov 14 – Santa Cruz de Succhabamba: 11 a.m. Mass
Nov 14 – Chiclayo: The Pope will crown a statue of the Virgin Mary at the Cathedral of St. Mary — a coronation is a formal Church act recognizing the shrine's importance
Nov 14 – Lima: Prayer service for the closing of the jubilee year of St. Turibius of Mogrovejo, the second Archbishop of Lima and patron of the Latin American episcopate
Nov 15 – Pucallpa: Mass at Villa Deportiva Regional Ucayali
Nov 16 – Callao: Final Mass at Las Palmas Air Base

Why Peru

The six full days in Peru are not coincidence. Before he was elected Pope, Leo XIV served as bishop of Chiclayo. The visit to the Shrine of Our Lady of Peace and the Marian coronation at the Cathedral of St. Mary are, in effect, a return to a diocese he knows personally.

The closing of the Jubilee of St. Turibius of Mogrovejo on November 14 in Lima is the other pole of the Peru leg — St. Turibius was the second Archbishop of Lima in the 16th century, traveled the Andes on foot, learned Quechua, and confirmed the young Rose of Lima. He is the patron saint of the Latin American bishops.

The Marian pattern

Look at the list again. In every one of the three countries the Pope visits, at least one major stop is a Marian shrine or a Marian act. An Our Lady of Guadalupe parish in Montevideo. The Basilica of Our Lady of Luján in Argentina. The Shrine of Our Lady of Peace and a Marian statue coronation in Peru. This is not accidental. It reflects both the Marian character of Latin American Catholicism and the Pope's own emphasis on Mary as Mother of the Americas.

The parallel Jubilee

The trip runs about a month after the Guadalupe Jubilee Year opened at the Basilica in Mexico City on October 12, 2026. So while Pope Leo XIV himself will be celebrating Mass in Buenos Aires and Chiclayo, the Holy Door in Mexico City will be open and the Guadalupan pilgrimages will be running. Millions of the faithful across the Americas can enter the Jubilee at Tepeyac while following the Pope's trip through Uruguay, Argentina, and Peru at the same time.

For parishes and Guadalupe ministries in the U.S., the two events together — the Jubilee Year on one hand, the papal voyage on the other — make November and December an exceptionally full season of Marian attention across the continent.