The announcement of Pope Leo XIV’s upcoming pastoral visit to three Latin American countries—Uruguay, Argentina, and Peru—between November 8 and 17, subject to the Pope’s medical condition given the latest news on his health, provides us with the opportunity and context to reflect on: the current social and ecclesial reality of Latin America; the importance of this apostolic journey for the world, for the Latin American continent, and particularly for the three countries on the agenda; the mission of the Church and its evangelizing task in Latin America, especially from the perspective of the Church’s Social Doctrine; the political and governmental practices of Latin American leaders; and, furthermore, the social impact that the faith of each disciple must have on the life, transformation, development, and progress of Latin American societies.

To review the current situation of Latin America and of the Catholic Church that journeys there, I turn to the analysis that the Latin American bishops made of both realities at the last of the five general conferences (CELAM), held in Aparecida – Brazil, from May 13 to 31, 2007.

In Part One of the official document, “THE LIFE OF OUR PEOPLES TODAY,” the bishops offer a pastoral, theological, and critical perspective—from the standpoint of faith and the light of the Gospel—on the region’s strengths and weaknesses. The bishops remind us that we are living through a period of epochal change, global in scope, that affects all areas of social life: culture, the economy, politics, academia, and so on. This epochal change is characterized by factors such as: the concentration of capital that surpasses the power of nation-states; “globalization” reduced to economics, which commodifies human life and nature, and through which the culture of consumerism, individualism, and hedonism expands. (Cf. Aparecida 33, 34, 43–45).

Regarding the socio-economic reality in Latin America, one of the most outstanding contributions of Aparecida, compared to previous conferences, is the distinction between exploitation and exclusion: It is no longer a matter of exploited peasants or workers, but of people who are directly excluded or discarded (“discarded”) from the productive system. (65, 70, 73, 407–430)

Two new and pressing realities, analyzed by the Latin American pastors in Aparecida, are the urban phenomenon and the challenges of the environment. Prophetically, they raise their voices to say that in large cities, new modes of language and lifestyles converge, but also anonymity, loneliness, and peripheral marginalization. Furthermore, they warn that environmental destruction, irresponsible deforestation, water pollution, and the excessive exploitation of biodiversity threaten us all, especially peasant and indigenous communities.

But the Latin American episcopate also addresses, with a self-critical sense, the internal situation of the Catholic Church in the region, marked, especially by this paradox: a continent of baptized people, but with critical weaknesses in the experience and maturity of the Christian faith, due to the absence in personal and community life of the criteria of the Gospel and its demands.

Furthermore, they note a weakness in Catholic identity and religious disaffection, manifested especially in the constant loss of faithful who migrate to sects, pseudo-religious movements, or who fall into religious indifference and practical secularism. Many of the faithful who leave the Catholic Church do so seeking more welcoming communities, a more direct study of the Bible, and more personalized pastoral care that the traditional parish structure does not offer.

However, we will always have to return to the criteria of Jesus in his gospel, contrary to the criteria of the world, according to which the sovereignty of God happens in the small things and in the small people, not in quantity but in quality , like in the yeast or like in the mustard seed.

No less serious is the phenomenon of “nominal Catholics”, since a large part of the baptized do not participate in sacramental life nor know the fundamental contents of Christian doctrine, which weakens the ecclesial fabric. (112, 134, 225, 285).

The rapid advance of Pentecostal evangelical groups and other religious expressions is analyzed by the bishops as a direct wake-up call to the pastoral structures of the Catholic Church in Latin America. (135–138, 226).

In Aparecida, the themes of clericalism and the rigidity of pastoral structures with obsolete pastoral methods deserve strong self-criticism in the face of cultural changes in this transition from modernity to postmodernity. (165, 174, 365–372).

In response to this painful analysis, the bishops urge an urgent “pastoral conversion” to the Christian life as missionary discipleship (365–370, 547). But in the face of Catholic institutional shortcomings and weaknesses, Aparecida recognizes popular piety as a “precious treasure” and a bastion of faith (258–265, 276).

And in the face of the harsh social reality of Latin America, the bishops emphasize the social resilience that, despite inequality and social injustices, the capacity for solidarity, community warmth, the defense of life and family, and the search for spiritual meaning continue to be the moral reserve of the region. (100, 258–265).

All of this, said about the reality of Latin America and the Catholic Church there, is very well known and felt by “the Pope of the Two Americas.” Born in Chicago, Illinois, United States, Robert Francis Prevost lived—at various times between 1985 and 2015—an extensive pastoral experience in Peru, first as an Augustinian missionary and, finally, as Bishop of Chiclayo. This period in the life of Pope Leo XIV has special relevance today for the Latin American Church in particular and for the universal Church in various respects.

First of all, the current Pope, although originally from the North American Catholic Church, is recognized as a pastor with a Latin American heart; as a pastor who knows well and firsthand the culture, mentality, society, challenges, struggles, aspirations and religiosity of the Latin American people.

All of which guarantees that Latin American problems and priorities are present in the heart of the Pope and in the work and decisions of the Church that opens itself up and goes in search of the geographical and theological peripheries, in continuity with the pastoral efforts of the previous first Jesuit Pope, Argentinian and Latin American: Francis.

Like Francis, Pope Leo XIV is known for having promoted, during his priestly ministry in Peru, an image of a Church that is close and open to dialogue, a Church that listens from the grassroots and promotes a Christ-centered vision, but decentralized in its governing structures, to make synodality possible.

And also, like his predecessor, Pope Leo XIV, marked by his Peruvian and Latin American experience, he advocates for social sensitivity to poverty and social inequality and injustice, the urgency to defend “the common home” and the urgency of being and making a field hospital Church, committed to the defense of the most vulnerable in society and of human rights.

Therefore, Pope Leo XIV’s North American origin and the years he lived in Peru position him as a bridge of encounter and dialogue between the north and south of the American continent, but also between the north and south of the planet.

The announced apostolic journey of Pope Leo XIV has special social, ecclesial, pastoral and geopolitical importance for both the receiving nations and the entire region.

For Uruguay , this is the first papal visit to the country since that of Saint John Paul II in 1988, and its main challenge is a pluralistic dialogue between the Christian faith, culture, education and the entire secularized Uruguayan civil society, as well as reaching out to vulnerable sectors such as the planned visit to the Casavalle neighborhood in Montevideo.

In Argentina , the Pope’s presence can serve as a symbol of unity, dialogue, reconciliation, and social cohesion within a complex and polarized social and political context. Furthermore, his pastoral visits to vulnerable communities, care centers, and Marian shrines (such as Luján) will reaffirm the Church’s commitment to supporting the daily realities of the Argentine people and the urban peripheries of Latin America.

In Peru , the inclusion of regions like Pucallpa in the itinerary highlights the central importance of the Amazon in the Pope’s pontificate, linking environmental challenges, the protection of indigenous peoples, and integral ecology. The planned meetings in Lima and Cusco, meanwhile, aim to project a message to young people and promote recognition of popular piety and Andean cultural diversity.

For Latin America as a whole , the trip of Leo XIV represents a strengthening of the defense of the environment, especially of the Amazonian and rural populations, a prophetic voice against social inequalities and the renewal of the call to fraternity among men and peoples of the region contained in the Encyclical “Fratelli Tutti” of Pope Francis.

From an ecclesial perspective, the trip renews the call to build a “Church that goes forth,” one that listens to the cries of individuals and nations and reaffirms the active role of the Latin American Church in building synodality. Furthermore, the Pope’s potential meetings with civil representatives, academics, and leaders of various religious denominations demonstrate the vocation of the Pope and the entire universal Church as builders of peace in the world.

The issue of political reality in Latin America deserves separate reflection : the fragility of institutions, corruption and impunity, distrust and the consequent crisis of democratic representation, new forms of populism and polarization (Cf. Aparecida 74-79) and – especially – the urgent need for the formation of social leaders who understand politics as the exercise of every citizen in the pursuit of the common good and not as the exercise in government positions for personal gain and illicit enrichment .

As Director of the Academy of Catholic Leaders, I recognize the urgent need for faith formation for all members of the Church. This formation must also serve to instruct us on the necessity of allowing the Christian faith and the principles, values, and logic of the Good News, which is Jesus Christ, to illuminate and permeate our temporal and social realities, our coexistence, and all our social structures and institutions.

All of this is contrary to confusing the sovereignty of God, which we disciples of Jesus Christ must build, with the governments of this world. Because the reign of God does not coincide, and should not coincide, with the reigns of the world. And it is also contrary and contradictory to a “Christian” life manifested only in rites and devotions, but divorced—outside the doors of the temples—from social and everyday realities.

Latin America is a continent mostly inhabited by men and women who identify as Catholic, so most civil, political and governmental leaders, in the various branches of civil power, are “Catholic” men and women, called to permeate the exercise of their personal and professional lives with the criteria of the Gospel, especially from the Social Doctrine of the Church.

In the context of the current reality of Latin America, marked by all the social and ecclesial aspects considered here (inequality and social inequity, forms of injustice, violence and death, environmental vulnerability, political polarization and multiple challenges in the construction of the social and institutional fabric), the Social Doctrine of the Church contemplates themes so that the evangelizing task of the Church in the world and, specifically, in Latin America, may have a transformative impact, such as:

• The preferential option for the poor and vulnerable, for human promotion (not for welfare), in one of the most unequal regions on the planet, with structural poverty, informal work and social exclusion affecting millions of people.
• The dignity of the human person and the culture of peace, because the unconditional defense of life and the inviolability of the person constitute the foundation of the entire social edifice of the Church.
• Integral ecology and “care for the common home” for social justice, since Latin America has the greatest biodiversity on the planet (the Amazon, the Andes, large river basins), but suffers from the indiscriminate exploitation of resources, pollution and the severe effects of climate change on the most vulnerable populations and indigenous peoples.
• Human work and a just economy, understanding that the economy must be at the service of the person and the common good, not the other way around.
• The search for the common good, solidarity and “social friendship” , as concrete manifestations of human fraternity that arises from the recognition that we are all children of the same God, Creator and Father.
• The reality of migration and the accompaniment of displaced persons, putting into practice four verbs proposed by the Church’s pastoral care for migrants: welcome, protect, promote and integrate.

To summarize all of the above, I end with the words of the beloved Pope Paul VI, of happy memory: “ What matters is to evangelize—not in a decorative way, like a superficial varnish, but in a vital way, in depth and to its very roots—the culture and cultures of man in the rich and broad sense… always taking the person as the starting point and always keeping in mind the relationships of persons with one another and with God .” (EN 20).

By: Mario J. Paredes,  President of the International Academy of Catholic Leaders