Pope Leo XIV Urges Living Faith in Peru's 3,399-Meter Cusco Gathering

3 articles · Updated · Vatican News - English · Nov 15

At Saqsaywaman in Cusco, Pope Leo XIV told faithful and Indigenous representatives that processions, pilgrimages and festivals express a community's living faith and search for God, not just inherited custom.
Addressing a region where more than 70% of residents identify as Indigenous, he said God meets people through their language, symbols and culture, making popular piety a path to encounter Christ.
Leo cast those traditions as a force for social repair, saying pilgrimages and patronal feasts can reunite families, bridge differences and become "a school of fraternity and charity" for communities.
He also urged communities to pass devotion to younger generations in a renewed way—preserving its Christian meaning while adapting practices and drawing youth closer to Scripture, the Church and the Eucharist.
On the penultimate day of his South America trip, the pope entrusted Peru's Marian devotion to Our Lady of Bethlehem and presented a Golden Rose, praying for peace, strength for sufferers and unity.