Canadian Catholics retain identity more than U.S. Catholics, but decline in practice is similar
WINNIPEG, Manitoba, Canada — If someone is raised Catholic in the United States, there is a 75% chance that as an adult that person is no longer Catholic — or he or she is still a Catholic but hardly ever attends Mass.
Ryan Burge, an American political scientist who specializes in research about religion in American life, published these findings and others on his website titled Graphs About Religion.
Using information from the U.S. General Social Survey and the Pew Religious Landscape Survey, Burge found that in 2024 nearly three-quarters of Americans raised Catholic were either no longer Catholic, or they identified as Catholic but never or seldom attended Mass.
How does that compare with Canada?
Catholics in Canada retain more of their identity than Americans, but how they practice their faith is similar to what is happening in the U.S., said Sarah Wilkins-Laflamme, who teaches sociology and studies religion in Canada at the University of Waterloo in Ontario.
“Catholic identity is important and is retained by many in Canada, but the practice for many started disappearing in the 1990s,” she said. “This is definitely true in Quebec, but also, to a lesser extent, in the rest of Canada.”
Wilkins-Laflamme said her research shows retention rates for Catholics are higher in Canada, but mostly as a cultural expression.
These are people who “value the identity of being Catholic, they see that as strongly tied to their family heritage, maybe their regional and national identity, like in Quebec,” she said.
“But for the most part, they have no practical ties with the Church. They don’t like the Church that much. And they don’t really agree with any of its policies.”
These Catholics might go to church services on special occasions or holidays, like Christmas or Easter. For the most part they are “very detached from the institution, but even that is now disappearing,” she said.
Only 10% of Catholics in Quebec say they practice their religion “with any regularity, let alone weekly,” Wilkins-Laflamme added, noting that in the rest of Canada “it’s not much more than that.”
Overall, Canadian Catholics have a good retention of their Catholic identity, but not of practice, she stated.
“It’s kind of, yes, there’s some religion, maybe like some vague beliefs in God. But it’s essentially a cultural identity, a tie to your family heritage. And even that is going down in Canada, although not by the same numbers as in the U.S.,” she said.
One source of the decline, Wilkins-Laflamme said, is that Catholic parents are not raising their children in the faith.
“Parents might say they’re Catholic, but if they don’t bother raising their kids Catholic, the children will remember their childhood as nonreligious,” she said. “They’ll just look like cradle nonreligious, raised nonreligious.”
Where the Catholic Church might have gained from immigration in the past, the federal government now is limiting the number of newcomers, she observed. “So they might not be getting as much from that source in the future, and their birth rates are quite low. They’re aging,” she said.
Joel Thiessen studies religion as a sociologist at Ambrose University in Calgary, Alberta, and is director of the Flourishing Congregations Institute. He agreed with Wilkins-Laflamme.
“I think Catholic parents in Canada are not terribly Catholic themselves,” he said. “So that’s part of the reason for the challenges of retention.”
Catholic schools and parishes could play a role in helping with religious transmission, but “there isn’t a lot of integration happening between those different institutional spaces, despite their best attempts,” he said. “And I think that weakens things.”
One of the challenges is a lack of youth workers in parishes, compared with Protestant churches, where many churches hire youth pastors to work with teens, which aids with higher retention among some Protestant churches.
“I think that in part helps to account for why Catholics are hemorrhaging more than Protestants,” Thiessen said.
Since personal ties to someone like a youth worker make a big difference for retention, that is a crucial piece, Thiessen said. “The current infrastructure doesn’t support it,” he said.
This story was first published by Canadian Catholic News and has been reprinted here, with adaptations, with permission.
Number of Catholics in Ibero-America fell by 25% over the last 30 years, study indicates
According to a study by Latinobarómetro, the percentage of Ibero-Americans who identify as Catholic has fallen from 80% in 1995 to 55% today, a decline of 25 percentage points over 30 years.
Spain and Portugal comprise the Iberian Peninsula; Ibero-America encompasses those nations who trace their ancestry to either of the two.
The report, based on interviews with more than 2,200 people from 17 countries in Central and South America including Brazil, further notes that Panama has seen the sharpest drop in the percentage of Catholics — from 89% to 46%, a difference of 43 percentage points.
Following Panama are Honduras, Brazil, Argentina, and El Salvador, where the number of Catholics has decreased by approximately one-third.
This decline has been least noticeable in Mexico, having fallen by only 8 percentage points, from 77% to 69%. It is followed by Paraguay, Guatemala, Bolivia, and the Dominican Republic, all of which have seen a decline of less than 20 percentage points.
Most Catholic country is Paraguay
The Ibero-American country with the highest percentage of Catholics is Paraguay, where eight out of every 10 people identify as members of the Catholic Church (82%), followed by Mexico and Ecuador, where nearly seven out of every 10 people consider themselves Catholic.
The countries with the least percentage of Catholics are Uruguay, El Salvador, and Honduras, where just over a third of the inhabitants identify as Catholic.
Of the 17 countries analyzed, nine have a Catholic majority, while Chile, Brazil, Panama, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Uruguay fall below the 50% mark.
Evangelicals and atheists
The countries with the highest proportion of evangelicals are Honduras (44%), Guatemala (43%), and El Salvador (42%), while in Colombia, Venezuela, Uruguay, Paraguay, Peru, and Ecuador, less than 10% identify as belonging to a Protestant Christian denomination.
Regarding atheists and agnostics, Uruguay stands out, having the largest group in percentage terms, equivalent to half its population (49%), followed by Chile (27%), Argentina (23%), Brazil (21%), and the Dominican Republic (20%). The nations where these groups have the smallest presence are Peru, Bolivia, and Paraguay.
Overall, the regional average of atheists and agnostics has quadrupled from 4% in 1995 to 16% in 2026.
This study reinforces the findings of another Pew Research report published in January covering Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru, which noted that Catholics remain the largest group, despite the growth of other denominations.
This story was first published by EWTN News Español, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
Singapore’s youngest Catholic priest finds his calling — and wins admirers
SINGAPORE — When AsiaOne, a secular Singapore news site, posted a 14-minute video interview with Father Marcus Dominic Chew on Oct. 21, it introduced him as Singaporeʼs youngest Catholic priest, at 31. By Nov. 8, the video — part of its "Of Beliefs & Faiths" series — had drawn more than 160,000 views on YouTube.
Chew was one of four men ordained as priests by Cardinal William Goh at St. Josephʼs Church (Bukit Timah) on June 1. He now serves as assistant parish priest at the Church of the Holy Spirit, where he was filmed when he was still a transitional deacon.
In the video, Chew admits that as a teenager he was “Catholic in name.” God, he says, was someone he prayed to “when I need to pass my Chinese exam.”
That changed at a morning Mass after an argument with his parents about what to do after his O-level exams. The Gospel that day was the story of the rich young man who was told to sell everything, give to the poor, and follow Christ.
“I felt like it was a direct response to my prayer,” Chew says. Looking up at the priest at the altar, he realized “this guy could be doing anything else with his life.”
He entered the seminary at age 22, straight after National Service. At first, his parents were not supportive. His mother told him a priestʼs life was difficult, that it seemed “a bit of a waste,” and that she feared he would regret spending his 20s in the seminary. Then, on Motherʼs Day, she told him: “Youʼre my son and I think you will make a good priest.”
His father came around earlier. After his father lost his eyesight, Chew feared he would be “an unfilial son.” At an evening Mass, the Gospel was Jesus' reply to a man who wanted first to bury his father: “Leave the dead to bury the dead.” Weeks later his father phoned him in tears after a Mass on Vocation Sunday. “If this is what God wants you to do, you go,” he said.
How did such a story land with Singaporeans who do not share the Catholic faith?
Sam Ho, 43, who works in communications and has no religion, found Chew to be “a very grounded person who has clarity in his purpose. He is also very Singaporean, which makes him relatable.”
The video did not change how he sees priests, he said. “I already know that priests make a lot of sacrifices to do what they do.” He noted Chewʼs honesty about once treating God as “transactional” for “self-centered gains, such as doing well in school,” and called him “an exemplary ambassador of Catholicism, with his humility and prioritization of God and serving the community, while acknowledging his imperfections and sacrifices.”
He said it did not make him curious about the faith because he already has “deep admiration and respect for many Catholics” he knows. Still, the storyʼs themes resonated: “How we can consistently maintain clarity on the bigger picture or larger purpose; how we can better serve; and how we reframe what we think are sacrifices?”
RP Singh, 47, a director who is Sikh, saw Chew as “very calm and aware of what he wants to do in life.” The words that stayed with him were the ones Chew heard at that evening Mass, “Leave the dead to bury the dead,” which he took to mean “we should not hold on to the past.”
“To me, this wasnʼt a religious story,” he said. “It was a personal story of how someone chose to be religious.” Chewʼs journey, he added, “showed how some people know from the very beginning about what they want in life.”
Tang Song Hee, 49, a pilot who attended a Catholic school as a teenager, was less moved. He recalled school prayer sessions that “couldnʼt end fast enough.”
“I explored religion when I was younger. Nothing happened,” he said, adding that he had no epiphany like the one the young priest described.
Chew himself says his clerical clothing invites exactly these encounters. Strangers often ask, “Are you a pastor?”
“I get it a lot,” he says in the video. “And then it opens up a conversation.”
The video ends on his ordination day, as people arrive to celebrate with him. “Even before ordination tears were already shed,” he says, “to see the people love God and love the Church.”
‘An immense emotion’: Andean missionary nun meets her former bishop, now Pope Leo XIV
“It has been an immense emotion” to see Pope Leo XIV again, said Mother María Priscila, a member of the Missionaries of Jesus, Word and Victim who serves in Cañaris, a Quechua-speaking town in the Andes in the Diocese of Chiclayo.
Her congregation works in the most remote and isolated places in Peru and elsewhere in Latin America. Besides being superior of her community, she is in charge of St. John the Baptist Parish in Cañaris because of a shortage of priests.
She spoke to EWTN News after the pope’s prayer meeting on Nov. 14 at the shrine of St. Turibius of Mogrovejo in Zaña, which closed the jubilee year for the 300th anniversary of the saint’s canonization.
“I felt a great deal of emotion, because I was fortunate enough to work in Incahuasi, and that is where we had his first visit [in 2014], when he was appointed apostolic administrator. We welcomed him with great emotion and great joy,” she said.
Incahuasi, another Andean town, was a place the pope had wanted to visit, but it was dropped from the itinerary because it did not meet minimum technical requirements.
“Seeing him now as Holy Father has been an immense emotion, because he is very well known to me: We have shared time on several occasions, on his pastoral tours, on missions with the communities,” she said.
Asked what the pope told her after she gave her testimony at the meeting, she said he asked where she was working now. “He congratulated me and told me to keep going, working in those communities, which need it so much.”
In her testimony, the sister recalled how often Robert Prevost had come to the diocese’s high Andean region despite the rugged terrain, speaking about Christ “to so many boys and girls, as Jesus did with his disciples,” and sharing “such human moments, with such simplicity and humanity.”
“Those gestures have filled our hearts with the joy of living in a Church that is close to people, that cares about the evangelization of everyone,” she said.
Abel Camasca contributed to this report from Zaña, Peru.
This story was first published by EWTN News Español. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
PHOTOS: Pope Leo XIV revisits his former cathedral, celebrates Mass in rural Peru
Pope Leo XIV on Nov. 14 visited his former cathedral in Peru, participated in a Marian crowning ceremony, celebrated Mass in the Santa Cruz province, and met with local Catholics during a packed Saturday in his adopted country.
The pope held a papal Mass in Santa Cruz de Succhabamba and later returned to Chiclayo to participate in a prayer vigil marking the closing of the jubilee year of the canonization of St. Turibius of Mogrovejo.
Here are photos of the pope’s activities on Nov. 14:
Pope Leo XIV deplores the ‘great suffering and humiliation’ of Afro-Peruvians
ZAÑA, Peru — Pope Leo XIV on Saturday acknowledged the suffering of Afro-Peruvians during a visit to a city that is a historic center of that community.
“Zaña also preserves the memory of generations of Africans who were torn from their homes and subjected to slavery. Many endured great suffering and humiliation,” the pope said. “Dear brothers and sisters of African descent, today I want to express my affection and closeness to you.”
The pope spoke Saturday, Nov. 14, at the shrine of St. Turibius of Mogrovejo at Zaña, in the Diocese of Chiclayo, which the future pope led as bishop from 2015 to 2023.
Leo’s remarks came after a series of testimonies, including one from a representative of the Afro-Peruvian community.
“Our history has known the pain of exclusion, but also a profound capacity to endure, rise again and celebrate life,” said Analí Montenegro Mendoza, who represented the Afro-Peruvian community of the Diocese of Chiclayo. “Holy Father, we hope and pray for a Church where no one feels inferior because of their skin color, history or culture.”
Leo encouraged Afro-Peruvians to follow the example of perseverance set by St. Martin de Porres, born in Lima in 1579 and barred from full membership in a religious order because of his African ancestry, but who was eventually canonized as a saint.
The pope also lamented that “many families in this region suffer because of crime, extortion and insecurity. I am pained at the thought of those who live in fear, of people whose honest labor is under threat and of those who continue to experience discrimination.”
Violent crime is an urgent problem across Latin America and the Caribbean, which according to the United Nations has the world’s highest homicide rate, four times the global average.
Leo was speaking at a prayer meeting marking the end of a jubilee year celebrating the 300th anniversary of the canonization of St. Turibius, a Spanish missionary who served as archbishop of Lima from 1581 until his death in 1606 and who promoted the use of the Indigenous languages Quechua and Aymara in evangelization.
Earlier this month, the saint was officially recognized by the Peruvian state as the patron of human rights in the country and a pioneer in the defense of human dignity.
The pope has a particular devotion to St. Turibius. The day before he became the bishop of Chiclayo, then-Father Robert Prevost spent the night in prayer before a relic of the saint in Zaña, an episode that he recalled on Saturday.
Abel Camasca contributed to this report from Zaña, Peru.
At papal Mass in Peru, Pope Leo XIV praises the evangelists of the Andes
SANTA CRUZ DE SUCCHABAMBA, Peru — Pope Leo XIV, who served for two decades as a missionary in Peru, traveled on Saturday to a remote mountain corner of his former diocese and paid tribute to the missionaries who had evangelized the land for centuries.
“Time and again, they came without provisions or letters of recommendation, to proclaim the name of Jesus and spread devotion to the Lord of Miracles of Andabamba and his Immaculate Mother,” the pope said in his homily at an open-air Mass, referring to the two parishes in Santa Cruz, a town in the Andean highlands.
Leo arrived on Saturday by military helicopter, but he acknowledged that much of the congregation had made a more difficult trip.
“Many of you have traveled long distances to be here. Some have come from rural communities, leaving behind your families, farms and daily occupations. The journey you made is not only a passage along difficult roads, but also a pilgrimage of faith,” the pope said.
More than 20,000 people attended the Mass on the town’s esplanade, according to local authorities.
Leo praised the popular piety of the high Andes, where he said faith “has grown simply and genuinely, founded on the daily living of Gospel values and expressed in traditions and festivals that bring peoples and generations together.”
Speaking to a largely poor congregation, the pope stressed “how important it is to pray without ever losing heart,” but he said that did not preclude taking action to relieve hardship and injustice. He specifically mentioned the problems of economically driven emigration from rural areas and inequities in the distribution of natural resources.
“In the face of so many difficulties, we may be tempted to give in to discouragement, resentment or even violence. Yet this will never lead to progress and peace,” Leo said.
“Selfishness, injustice and evil are not overcome by brutality, but by prayer, patience and perseverance in denouncing what is wrong, by making our pleas with determination and working diligently to bring about the necessary changes, while never losing trust in God.”
During his time as a missionary in Peru in the 1980s and 1990s, the future pope witnessed and protested against both left-wing terrorism and right-wing counterterrorism, a conflict whose legacy the country is still reckoning with today.
“There is a close relationship between faith, prayer and action. Where there is faith, there is prayer; and where there is prayer, there is the capacity to commit oneself to others,” Leo said.
In particular, he commended “those who, with ingenuity and an entrepreneurial spirit, strive to provide people with dignified jobs: farmers, shopkeepers, small business owners and so many others who, here day after day, put their God-given talents at the service of their communities.”
Later in the day, Leo was scheduled to address a prayer meeting near Chiclayo at the shrine of St. Turibius de Mogrovejo, a Spanish missionary who served as archbishop of Lima from 1581 until his death in 1606.
Pittsburgh Diocese establishes ‘Cabrini Fund’ to help immigrant families facing hardship
The Diocese of Pittsburgh said this week that it is establishing an emergency initiative called the “Cabrini Fund” to help immigrant families address what Bishop Mark Eckman called their “hardest moments” including the loss of household providers.
The announcement, made on Nov. 13 — the memorial of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini — said the fund is meant to address what the diocese said is a “growing need” to help immigrants in crisis in western Pennsylvania.
It will offer “temporary emergency assistance” to immigrant families in the diocese who are facing “extraordinary hardship.” The diocese said that the fund is meant to function as a last resort after “other sources of assistance” have already been utilized.
It will offer immigrant families money for rent, utilities, medical care, food, clothing, diapers and other essentials.
The families served by the fund will also be connected with “trusted partners” to help address long-term needs, including “employment, schooling, health care, and qualified legal help.”
“The Church cannot solve every difficulty a family may face, but we can make sure that no family faces its hardest moments alone,” Eckman said in announcing the fund.
The diocese will begin distributing funding on Dec. 12, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. It will be administered by the diocesan Catholic Charities affiliate and funded by donations through either the charity or via individual parishes.
As with much of the rest of the country, Pennsylvania has seen an uptick in immigration enforcement over the last few years, with authorities there detaining and at times deporting immigrants in the country illegally.
The diocese said immigrant families in Pennsylvania are facing crises that include “the loss of a Household’s provider” as well as “fear and uncertainty for their children.”
The title of the fund refers to St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, the first American to be canonized and the founder of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
In 1950, Pope Pius XII officially named her the patron saint of immigrants, recognizing her lifelong dedication to displaced and marginalized communities.
Vatican envoy: Europe’s military buildup must serve peace, not war
BRUSSELS, Belgium — As Europe accelerates military spending in response to Russiaʼs war in Ukraine and uncertainty over U.S. security guarantees to NATO allies, the Vaticanʼs ambassador to the European Union has warned that rearmament must serve peace, not war.
Archbishop Bernardito Auza, apostolic nuncio to the European Union, addressed the Nov. 11–12 Brussels conference of the Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice Foundation, organized at the Representation of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia to the EU by the foundationʼs German chapter with its Netherlands chapter and the Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Union (COMECE). It followed a first conference in Luxembourg in January and a seminar in Ventotene, Italy, in October.
Auza warned that Europe faces a “profound and multidimensional crisis” involving security, economic competitiveness, and the erosion of its founding values.
“In face of a crisis in peace, security, and multilateralism, the Church teaches the unarmed and disarming peace,” he said, stressing that security “cannot be separated from the culture of peace and dialogue.”
The conference featured an opening video address by European Parliament President Roberta Metsola and brought together prominent political and diplomatic figures, including Herman Van Rompuy, the former Belgian prime minister and president of the European Council, and Thomas Antoine, a Belgian diplomat and former secretary-general of the Benelux Union.
Rearmament and the right to self-defense
While advocating peace and dialogue, Auza also acknowledged the right of nations to self-defense.
“The Church is not a naive pacifist,” he said.
“I believe that the theory or doctrine of just or justified war cannot be abandoned, because in essence it means the right of self-defense and the defense of fundamental values worth the sacrifice.”
Auza recalled Pope Leo XIVʼs Sept. 28 Metz address in France, where the pope praised European integration pioneer Robert Schumanʼs commitment to reconciliation and warned against relying on military force rather than dialogue to secure peace.
Speaking exclusively to EWTN News, Auza reflected on the challenges of international intervention, drawing on his six years as apostolic nuncio to Haiti, where successive United Nations peacekeeping missions have struggled to deliver lasting stability.
When asked about Salvadoran President Nayib Bukeleʼs recent military intervention against gangs in Haiti, Auza stressed that Haitians must lead their countryʼs reconstruction but said the international community has a moral obligation to help, even when its strategic interests are limited.
“They are my brothers and sisters. I must be in solidarity with them,” he said.
Migration challenges in the social media age
The conference also examined Europeʼs migration pressures, including the surge in arrivals in Ceuta, Spainʼs North African enclave, in late July, and the continuing dangers of Mediterranean crossings.
EU lawmaker Lena Düpont described how the movement into Ceuta gathered momentum “within roughly two and a half days, via social media,” questioning whether international agreements such as the 1951 Geneva Refugee Convention are equipped to address such rapid mobilization in the digital age.
“We need to find new ways of actually making sure that we close our own vulnerabilities,” she said, while stressing that Europe must not abandon its humanitarian and Christian values.
Corinna Ullrich, a European Commission director for migration and home affairs, highlighted the economic incentives driving migrant smuggling.
She explained that families often pool their savings to pay thousands of euros for dangerous crossings to Europe, expecting young relatives to find work and send money home.
“They think once the people are here, they work, they will pay them back 10 times,” she said.
However, Ullrich warned that smugglers profit regardless of whether migrants survive the crossing or ultimately have their asylum claims rejected.
Putting Catholic social teaching into practice
Founded by St. John Paul II more than three decades ago, the Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice Foundation is now adopting a deliberate continental strategy to apply Catholic social teaching to todayʼs security, economic, and social challenges, its president said.
Speaking exclusively to EWTN News, foundation president Paolo Garonna outlined plans for initiatives across Asia-Pacific, the Americas, and Africa. The principles remain the same, he said, but their concrete application must respond to the distinct realities of each region.
In Asia, Garonna stressed the importance of interfaith dialogue, given the regionʼs religious diversity, in contrast to predominantly Catholic Latin America. Against this backdrop, the foundation plans to explore Islamic and Christian approaches to finance.
“Through an interfaith engagement we can bridge the financing gaps,” he said.
In Africa, Garonna emphasized the need for locally led economic development, with international partners playing a supporting role. “Itʼs the Africans” who must lead, he stressed, noting that African Catholics bring their own distinctive perspectives to Catholic social teaching.
Garonna also highlighted the importance of cooperation between governments and businesses.
“Rather than opposing the public and the private, we need an ethical framework that helps the two join together,” he said.
‘One of our own from Chiclayo’: At his former cathedral, Pope Leo urges Catholics to walk together
Pope Leo XIV returned to his former cathedral in Peru on Nov. 14 to take part in the crowning of a Marian statue while urging Catholics to pursue “a world marked by love and compassion.”
“I give thanks to God for being here with you today to celebrate
our faith as we have so often done, and in the same cathedral in which I began my episcopal ministry,” the pope told Catholics at the Cathedral of Saint Mary in Chiclayo.
In crowning the statue of the Blessed Mother, the Holy Father said the gesture “is intended to symbolize the tribute of gratitude and filial love offered to her by the pope, together with you and the whole Church.”
Addressing the Chiclayo Diocese — which Leo led as Bishop Robert Prevost for years before being appointed prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops in Rome — the pope described devotion to the Immaculate Virgin as “part of the Christian roots that shape your identity and strengthen your faith.”
“With loving care, the Mother of God has accompanied this people for generations and continues to accompany you today,” he said. “Trusting in her intercession and protection, I invite you to keep walking forward together, as one family of God.”
‘Still the same Father Prevost we’ve always known’
The streets around the cathedral were filled with Catholics who turned out to witness the ceremony, which was richly significant as the return of a former bishop, now the Vicar of Christ, to his onetime cathedral.
The cathedral itself has a rich history: It was built over the course of roughly 70 years, starting in 1869 before halting in 1871. Construction resumed in 1928 and was finished in 1939. It was notably designed by Gustave Eiffel, the namesake of the world-famous tower in Paris.
One attendee, Rosa Valdivia, told EWTN News that she knew Pope Leo XIV when he served as bishop of the diocese.
“He was a mentor to my son, who is also part of the church community here at the Chiclayo Cathedral,” she said.
“They had a good relationship; I knew him personally. He was very kind and very sensitive — I had the chance to get to know him.”
She said witnessing her former bishop become pope was “truly moving.” She described him as “one of our own from Chiclayo.”
Though he has risen to the Chair of Saint Peter, “he still has that same simplicity and sensitivity,” Valdivia said.
“He’s still the same Father Robert Prevost we’ve always known,” she said.
Another attendee, Esperanza de Rellido Solano, was serving as a volunteer doctor for the event. She said people in Chiclayo were “very happy” with the pope’s visit.
“We are looking forward to all the upcoming events with great joy and faith, and we hope that everything continues to go as smoothly as it has so far,” she said.
Echoing Valdivia’s remarks, Solano said Leo “is still the same person we once knew — very compassionate and very humble.”
“Just seeing him inspires a sense of love for humanity and for our neighbors,” she said.
Addressing Mary at the ceremony, Leo told the Blessed Mother: “I lift my gaze and my heart today with filial affection.”
“At your side I learned to be the shepherd of Chiclayo,” he said. “You accompanied me through its towns and cities. You taught me to meet its people and to be attentive to their needs, as you did at the Wedding Feast of Cana.”
“To your Immaculate Heart I entrust today my life and my ministry as Successor of Peter,” he said.