On a visit to Peru, a country where he lived and served for several decades, Pope Leo spoke of what that long service taught him about being a shepherd. In an emotional address, he named the culture of machismo as something to be rejected and urged his listeners to value women and respect girls. Coming from a man who knows the land and its people from years spent among them, the words carry a weight that a distant moral lecture could not, and they invite a quieter question about how faith communities in the region might look at themselves.
Pope Leo Urges Followers to "Value Women" and "Respect Girls" During Peru Visit
He spoke as someone who had served there for years, not as a visitor.
Mark
So what actually happened in Peru on Thursday?
Mimi
Pope Leo visited the country where he lived and served for several decades, and gave an emotional speech. He denounced machismo and told followers to value women and respect girls.
Mark
Why does it matter that he lived there?
Mimi
He said Peru is where he learned what it means to be a shepherd. So he was speaking as someone formed by the place, not as an outsider lecturing it.
Luke
Let me slow us down. What do we actually have beyond that?
Mimi
Not much. The report confirms the visit, the date, and the gist of the message.
Luke
Right. We don't know the venue, the crowd size, or whether he cited any specific cases or numbers. Anything beyond the denunciation of machismo and the call to value women is unknown.
Mark
Is it fair to say this signals a shift in Church policy?
Luke
No. The reporting doesn't support that. It's a speech, and its effect on Church messaging is something to watch, not something established.
Mimi
Agreed. What's solid is the tone: emotional, personal, and aimed at a cultural attitude rather than a single act.
Mark
So the thing to look for next is the full text.
Luke
Yes, and any follow-up that shows how it lands in Peru.
Le Pouls
- The pope stood before listeners in Peru and named machismo outright, refusing to let it pass as ordinary custom.
- His voice grew emotional as he spoke of the women and girls whose dignity is at stake.
- He drew on decades of service in the country, grounding a hard rebuke in lived experience rather than distant doctrine.
- The remarks now hang open: no full text, no details of where or to whom, and the real test is whether Church voices across Latin America pick up the call.
On a visit to Peru, a country where he lived and served for several decades, Pope Leo spoke of what that long service taught him about being a shepherd. In an emotional address, he named the culture of machismo as something to be rejected and urged his listeners to value women and respect girls. Coming from a man who knows the land and its people from years spent among them, the words carry a weight that a distant moral lecture could not, and they invite a quieter question about how faith communities in the region might look at themselves.
Pope Leo arrived in Peru on Thursday, a country he knows well from the decades he lived and served there. He told the crowd that it was in Peru that he learned what it means to be a shepherd, and that memory shaped everything he said next.
His speech was emotional and direct. He denounced the culture of machismo and called on his listeners to value women and respect girls. He did not speak as a visitor offering general advice. He spoke as someone who had given years of his working life to these people, and he tied his sense of pastoral duty to that time.
The reporting is thin. It confirms the visit, the day, his reference to his years in Peru, and the core of his message. It does not say where he spoke, how many were there, or whether he cited particular incidents or statistics, and the full text is not yet available.
What comes next remains open. The question is whether these words will shape how the Church speaks about gender equality and violence against women in Latin America, and whether fuller details of the speech will show how far he meant to go.
Pope Leo traveled to Peru on Thursday, a country he knows from the inside. He lived and served there for several decades, and he told the crowd that it was in Peru that he learned what it means to be a shepherd.
The speech he gave was an emotional one. He denounced the culture of machismo, and he called on his listeners to value women and to respect girls. The words were plain and direct, and they came from a man speaking about a place where he spent a large part of his working life.
The source material here is thin, and it is worth being clear about what it does and does not establish. It confirms the visit, the day it took place, the pope's reference to his decades in Peru, and the core of his message: a rebuke of machismo and an appeal for the dignity of women and girls. The report comes from CBS News, with Chris Livesay covering the visit. It does not say where in Peru the pope spoke, how large the audience was, or what specific incidents or statistics, if any, he cited. It also does not give the full text of his remarks.
What can be said is that he framed the message through his own experience. He did not speak as a visitor offering a general moral lesson. He spoke as someone who had served in the country for years, and who tied his sense of pastoral duty to that time. That framing gives the call to value women and respect girls a personal grounding rather than an abstract one.
Machismo is a term long associated with Latin American societies, and the pope named it as a culture, something broader than individual behavior. Calling it out by name, in a country where he once lived and worked, makes the criticism specific to the place he was addressing.
What comes next is not yet clear from the reporting. The thing to watch is whether these remarks shape how the Church talks about gender equality and violence against women in Latin America, and whether further details of the speech emerge to show how far he went.
Citations marquantes
He learned what it means to be a shepherd in Peru.— Pope Leo, paraphrased from CBS News reporting
Followers should value women and respect girls.— Pope Leo, paraphrased from CBS News reporting
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