A week of great importance for the Church in Peru, with the “Ad Limina” visit to Rome of 46 bishops to reiterate their fidelity to Pope Leo XIV and his Church, to talk with him and listen to his advice.

During the same, the president of the Peruvian Episcopal Conference, Carlos García Camader, revealed to Radio Programas de Perú (RPP), that the Pope’s visit to Peru will most likely be in November of this year, after the political elections, a trip that could coincide with the apostolic visit to Argentina and Uruguay.

The visit concluded this Saturday with the inauguration of a statue of Saint Rose and a mosaic with Marian invocations from Peru, in the Vatican Gardens.

“These beautiful images we contemplate today remind us of the greatness of the vocation to which God calls us, that is, the universal vocation to holiness.” With these words in perfect Spanish, the Prevost addressed those present. And he exhorted them to “be witnesses of that holiness in today’s world, because this is the will of God,” he said.

The image of Saint Rose of Lima was sculpted by the young Peruvian artist Edwin Morales and was made with marble from the Andean town of Huancayo.

The work was commissioned to the Don Bosco Family of Artisans, a community of young artists trained by Fr. Ugo De Censi, a Salesian and founder of Operation Mato Grosso, who died in 2018.

Amid the solemnity of the ceremony, there was also room for humor, as when it began to rain, the Holy Father reminded everyone that water is blessed…”

The mosaic of the Virgin, on the other hand, was designed by the Peruvian artist Lenin Álvarez, featuring the Immaculate Conception at its center and surrounded by Marian devotions common in Peru: Our Lady of the Gate, three representations of Our Lady of Candelaria, Our Lady of Mercy, Our Lady of Mount Carmel (associated with the promise of the scapular), and Our Lady of Evangelization, who offers the rosary to the faithful. The mosaic’s creation required six months of work and the participation of eight young artists from the Don Bosco Workshop Schools, under the guidance of Lenin Álvarez, who passed away in 2018.

The intense week began on Monday the 26th  with the bishops’ prayer at the foot of St. Peter’s tomb, saw a conference at the Pontifical Gregorian University on Tuesday, and recorded the bishops’ visit to the Vatican dicasteries (ministries).

The Conference at the Gregorian University

“Saint Rose of Lima, the first saint of the New World: contemporary reflections,” was the conference held on Tuesday, January 27, at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, organized by the Embassy of Peru to the Holy See in collaboration with the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru.

The conference opened with a greeting from Filipino Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, given that the Peruvian saint is also the patron saint of the Philippines.

Father Mark Andrew Lewis, rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University, spoke; also participating via videoconference were Julio del Valle Ballón, rector of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru; Father Marek Inglot, president of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences; and Cardinal Carlos Castillo Mattasoglio, Archbishop of Lima and Primate of Peru, who emphasized that Saint Rose, as a laywoman, lived the interior dimension with depth.

The Governor of Vatican City State, Sister Raffaella Petrini, in her speech recalled that “Rosa is the ever-young saint, the one who has aroused sympathy and empathy in millions of faithful, not only Peruvians, but from all over the New World, and whose example and fame have spread everywhere.”

The meeting was closed by the new ambassador of Peru to the Holy See, Jorge Fernando Ponce San Román, who last week presented his credentials to Pope Leo XIV.

A surprise visit from Pope Leo XIV

On Thursday the 29th at noon, Pope Leo made a surprise visit that thrilled the Peruvian bishops in Rome.

When everything was ready for lunch at the Maria Bambina Institute located in front of Bernini’s Colonnade in the Vatican, where the Peruvian bishops were staying, the Holy Father arrived, blessed the table, “and sat with us in a gesture of great closeness and simplicity,” said one of those present.

The Bishop of Ayacucho, Salvador Piñeiro, told RPP that the Pope invited him to his table and reminded him, “It was you who made me a bishop,” a necessary step before becoming Pope, moving him to tears. They also brought a cake because it was the bishop’s birthday two days prior. At the end of the meal, the Pope received as a gift a round icon depicting all the Peruvian saints.

The meeting with Leo XIV at the Apostolic Palace

The most moving moment of the visit came on the morning of Friday, January 30. The Pope received the Peruvian bishops, who began their apostolic visit by praying at the tomb of St. Peter and concluded it with a Mass in the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.

The Holy Father told them: “I beg you to remind my dear children of Peru that the Pope carries them in his heart and remembers them with affection, especially in his prayers.” The visit, which took place in the context of the 300th anniversary of the canonization of Saint Toribio de Mogrovejo, led the Pontiff to remind them: “You, dear brothers and sisters, are the fruit of the Gospel seed that this holy bishop sowed in those lands,” he said, and reminded them that current challenges demand a renewed fidelity to the Gospel, which must be proclaimed in its entirety.

He urged them to “live like the Apostles” and said that “we are called to go out to meet, to listen, to accompany, and to understand, in order to lead everyone to God.” This closeness should be for “consecrated persons as well as for all the People of God, with a special predilection for the most vulnerable and needy.”

He also reminded them: “Peru holds a special place in my heart. There I shared joys and hardships with you, I learned the simple faith of its people, and I experienced the strength of a Church that knows how to wait even in the midst of trials.”