Pope Leo thanks God as 1.5 million cheer in Peru city he served as bishop

CHICLAYO, Peru — Pope Leo held the central event of his 12-day South America tour on Friday, an outdoor Mass in northern Peru where he told a vast crowd of people who once knew him as their bishop that he thanked God he was alive to see them. People arrived on foot and in lines of vehicles at an arid field outside Chiclayo, a city 10,700 km (6,650 miles) from Rome, where the former Robert Prevost, elected leader of the Catholic Church last year, is still described as "Padre" (Father) or "Amigo" (Friend). Cheers erupted as Leo toured in an open-air popemobile at the Pampas de Pimentel, a desert park west of Chiclayo, where people waved white-and-yellow Vatican flags and used umbrellas to guard against an intense Pacific coast sun. Screams of "Pope Leo is here!" and "The pope is from Chiclayo!" echoed across the field. In a sermon, Leo said it was a blessing to be in his adopted home exactly one month after he underwent lung cancer surgery, an operation many feared would force cancellation of his visit and which the pope told the crowd was a "time of trial." He thanked people in Chiclayo