Pope Leo XIV left Rome on Friday for a 12-day tour of Uruguay, Argentina and Peru, three weeks after lung cancer surgery, the Buenos Aires Times reported. The 71-year-old pontiff, the first US-born pope and a long-time missionary in Peru, waved to onlookers before his plane departed Fiumicino. The itinerary includes meetings with political leaders, prisoners and people in poverty, and is billed as one of the most intensive papal foreign trips in decades. Vatican aides say doctors cleared him to travel. Crowds are expected especially in Argentina, which has waited decades for a papal visit of this scale.
Source: Buenos Aires Times