Pope Leo XIV, who has dual American and Peruvian nationality, has taken steps to renew his Peruvian identity card, Peruvian media reported on May 30. To this end, he received a delegation of officials from the Peruvian government office that oversees the issuance of electronic identity cards.
While he was apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Chiclayo, Bishop Robert Francis Prevost obtained Peruvian citizenship in 2015 in order to become a bishop in his own right, in accordance with the Concordat between the Holy See and Peru, which stipulates that only Peruvian nationals may head dioceses in that Andean country.
Now Pope Leo XIV, Robert Francis Prevost by his civil name, updated his address and photo on his National Identity Document (DNI) last Friday. The National Registry of Identification and Civil Status (Reniec) will now issue him with the new electronic DNI 3.0, which does not expire.
The new Bishop of Rome received a delegation of Reniec officials at the Vatican for this purpose, according to the website Peru Informe, which published a photo of the meeting. The team updated Pope Leo XIV’s address and took his new ID photo, changes that were recorded in real time in the Reniec system. This process required a physical meeting in order to record his fingerprints and signature, among other things.
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This procedure was made possible thanks to the campaign by the Reniec and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “Identificación sin Fronteras” (Identification without Borders), which enabled the sending of records, first to Rome and then to Milan, with the aim of bringing the institution’s services closer together to document and update the administrative documents of Peruvian nationals in Italy.
This is the first time the pontiff has changed his address on his identity document. After obtaining Peruvian nationality, Robert Francis Prevost had registered an address in Chiclayo on his first identity document, which he obtained in Lima in 2015, and kept it when he renewed his electronic document 2.0 in 2016.
“An act of responsibility”
“What Pope Leo XIV has done confirms his attachment to the country and is also an act of responsibility. It is a message to all Peruvians to keep our DNI up to date. I thank the Holy Father for taking the time to update his document,“ said Carmen Velarde, head of the Reniec, when questioned by the Peruvian press.
”Identificación sin Fronteras” is a campaign launched by the Reniec and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to improve identification services for Peruvians abroad, regardless of their immigration status. So far, Reniec teams have visited Chile, Argentina, the United States, and Spain. The newspaper Le Monde estimates that 3.5 million Peruvian nationals live abroad, representing 10% of the Andean country’s total population. The emigration of young graduates is also causing serious difficulties for local businesses.
In response to the election of the new pope on May 8, President Dina Boluarte emphasized that the granting of a Peruvian passport to Archbishop Prevost in 2015 was not “merely a formal gesture, but a deeply spiritual and human one,” given that the new pope had dedicated much of his religious life to serving the poorest in the country.
During his pastoral work in Peru, the future pope “sowed hope, walked with the most needy and shared the joys of the Peruvian people,” the president recalled.
Before becoming bishop, Father Robert Francis Prevost had already spent several years on mission in Peru in the 1980s and 1990s.
Leo XIV greeted his former diocesans in Chiclayo in Spanish during his first appearance on the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica on May 8. His attachment to Peru makes this vast Latin American country, twice the size of France, a likely destination for one of his first apostolic journeys.