Pope Leo XIV begins 12-day South America tour, three weeks after lung surgery

Pope Leo XIV has arrived in Uruguay, opening a 12-day tour of South America just three weeks after surgery to remove a tumour from his right lung.

The 71-year-old pontiff landed in Montevideo, the Uruguayan capital, on Friday evening. He is due to celebrate Mass on Saturday in a park in Paysandu, a city in western Uruguay, where about 30,000 pilgrims are expected, according to Vanguard.

It is the first papal visit to Uruguay in nearly four decades and the sixth international trip of Leo's papacy. He will go on to Argentina and then Peru, where he spent more than 20 years as a missionary and later as a bishop.

Doctors gave the trip the green light after his mid-October surgery, saying he is cancer-free, and the Vatican said his programme remains unchanged, PM News reported.

Health and a message of hope

Speaking to reporters on the plane, the pope said he was "in fairly good shape" after the operation. His advice to others facing a cancer diagnosis was "not to be afraid".

In Montevideo, he was welcomed by President Yamandu Orsi, a left-wing leader, at Plaza Independencia. Thousands lined the seafront, some waving yellow-and-white Vatican flags, though crowds were relatively sparse in what is Latin America's most secular country.

Leo used his first public remarks to lament Uruguay's high suicide rates, which he called "painful", and to appeal for healthcare to be "accessible to everyone". He said his own care had made him think of people who cannot get a timely diagnosis or treatment.

He also praised the country's progress in greening its economy, which runs mainly on renewables.

The pope is expected to visit Casavalle, the Montevideo neighbourhood with the capital's highest homicide rate, and to lead a prayer vigil at the Centenario Stadium for about 60,000 people.

Why it matters beyond South America

Leo, the Church's first US-born pope, also has Peruvian citizenship and speaks Spanish fluently. He told reporters he voted by mail in this week's US midterm elections, saying: "I'm proud to be an American and to exercise the right" to vote.

His predecessor, Pope Francis, was Argentine but never returned home during his papacy. Francis died at Easter last year.

In Peru, excitement has been building: vendors in Lima are selling T-shirts and rosaries bearing the pope's image, and a 14-metre statue of him has gone up in the port city of Callao. The trip will also take him to Cusco and the Amazon, and includes an excursion to about 3,700 metres above sea level in the Peruvian Andes.

What happens next: After Uruguay, the pope travels to Argentina on Sunday and then Peru, where he will revisit places from his years as a missionary and bishop.