Pope Leo XIV on Thursday denounced widespread “machismo” and violence against women in Peru, demanding that women be protected and respected as he set out marching orders for his beloved Peruvian church and people. After his emotional homecoming Wednesday, the Peruvian pope got down to business and turned to the challenges facing a church and country he knows well. He called on the influential Catholic hierarchy to be models of unity and communion, and instructed Peruvian bishops to accompany their flocks and respond to victims of clergy sexual abuse with truth and justice. He also met with six survivors, including from an abusive sect-like group that Pope Francis suppressed last year. But the 71-year-old pope also showed himself to be positively overjoyed to be home and as relaxed as he has been in public since his 2025 election. Leo sang along enthusiastically as 40,000 people in Lima’s Plaza Mayor serenaded him with “Contigo Peru,” a famous song from Peru’s Pacific coast that celebrates national unity. He sang along later to another hymn, Alma Misionera (Missionary Soul), in Lima’s stadium along with 30,000 young people during a vigil. He drew huge applause when he recited the lyrics of another famous Creole hymn, “Mi Peru.” “It’s a blessing not only for us Chiclayans but for all of Peru,” said Angel Esquives, a craftsman originally from Leo’s former diocese in Chiclayo who now lives in Lima. He said he left his home at 3 a.m. to go to the historic center and stand in line to get as close as possible to the pope. Zozimo Perez came in a self-designed costume he named “the Inca Warrior,” with the pontiff’s image on his chest and back. He was in tears as he saw Leo stroll around the square. “This is a gift from heaven,” said Perez. As he showed in the first two legs of his South American trip, Leo was in fine form despite having undergone lung cancer surgery last month. He bounded up a steep flight of stairs Thursday morning without any apparent problems and joked with the bishops that some “doubting Thomases” had predicted he wouldn’t be able to come. “But God is great and his grace is bigger than all of us and I’m very happy to be here with you,” he said to applause. An appeal to protect and respect women In a speech to Peruvians in the plaza, Leo denounced the culture of “machismo” and violence against women that is prevalent in Peru, saying it went against the Christian teaching that proclaims men and women share equal dignity. “It pains us to see that violence against women -- who could be our grandmothers, mothers, sisters or daughters -- continues to be a reality that wounds all of humanity,” he said. He noted that poor, Indigenous and Afro-Peruvian women are doubly penalized, and called for all women to be valued, protected and respected. Gender-based violence is an urgent social issue in Peru, which recorded 1,261 femicide victims between 2016 and 2024, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Informatics. During that period, the number of women killed because of their gender rose by 44 per cent, suggesting the problem is only getting worse. “While we’ve made progress with women’s suffrage and in being heard more, femicides are still on the rise -- or at least they’re receiving more attention,” said Nicole Cruz, who was in the Plaza Mayor for the pope’s speech Thursday. Cruz said she hopes the pope’s words will help unite women and help “men understand that we’re not complaining, but that we want help and to be loved and heard.” A massive welcome home for `Padre Robert’ The former Robert Prevost spent two decades as a missionary priest and bishop in Peru and credits the place with teaching him how to be a shepherd. He in many ways has modeled his vocation as a bishop on the 16th century St. Turibius de Mogrovejo, the first archbishop of Lima. Mogrovejo is revered for having travelled long distances to be with his flock and for having defended the rights of Indigenous and enslaved peoples. He studied Quechua and Aymara and oversaw the printing of the Catechism of the Catholic Church in these Indigenous languages, because he believed the faith had to be transmitted in a language people could understand. Leo urged bishops on Thursday to model their vocation on his example. Being a bishop, he said, means “entering people’s homes, accompanying the sick, meeting young people and reaching out to communities which, due to their geographical remoteness or social vulnerability, are rarely able to make their voices heard.” While the clergy sexual abuse scandal hasn’t exploded publicly in Peru as it has in other Latin American countries, Leo identified it as a “reality that has caused us so much pain.” “We must respond as Jesus would, with truth, justice, forgiveness, making amends and an ever more resolute commitment to fostering a culture of prevention and protection for the weakest in light of such crimes,” Leo said. He later put that into practice by meeting with six victims for an hour, listening to their stories and “reflecting with them on how to foster a change in mindset by listening to the victims, seeking the truth, pursuing paths to healing, and committing to creating safe environments,” the Vatican said. Among the six were former members of the Peru-based Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, a once-powerful movement. Leo, who was the Peruvian bishops’ point-person to welcome Sodalitium’s victims while he was Chiclayo bishop, knows the case well. In 2011, former members complained to the archdiocese in Peru’s capital, Lima, about abuses by its founder, Luis Figari. But neither the local church nor the Holy See took concrete action until one of the victims and a journalist, Pedro Salinas and Paola Ugaz, wrote a book in 2015. After attempts at reform, Francis sent his two most trusted investigators to look into the Sodalitium abuse allegations. Their report uncovered “sadistic” sect-like abuses of power and spirituality, and financial abuses in administering church funds. Francis suppressed it shortly before he died, but it still wields economic power in Peru. On Thursday, Jose Escardo, the Sodalitium’s first whistleblower who wrote about the abuses he suffered in 2000, said the church’s rhetoric has been empty when it comes to punishing clergymen who commit crimes. Outside the house where Leo is staying, Escardo complained that Leo has not responded letters from victims for over a year. “These are not sins, they are not a mistake, that is an offense. These are crimes, and as such they must be punished,” Escardo said. Beyond the Sodalitium case, the online database BishopAccountability has identified 77 priests, brothers, seminarians and laypeople consecrated in Peru who have been publicly accused of sexually abusing minors. But based on trends in other countries, the organization said that number is a “small fraction” of the total, arguing victims simply haven’t come forward yet in the overwhelmingly Catholic country where the church wields significant influence. 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