Rome (Fides News Agency) – “People are looking forward to welcoming the Pope from Rome, but they are also eager to see the man they know and remember, the man who inspired them, moved them, challenged them to reflect and encouraged them to keep moving forward.”
These words by Father Alexander Lam, Vicar General of the Order of Saint Augustine, capture a significant part of the expectations surrounding Pope Leo XIV’s Apostolic Journey to Peru. The country that welcomed him as a young missionary, and to which he later returned as Bishop of Chiclayo, is preparing to welcome him as the Successor of Peter. He is a Pope who knows Peru’s rich and complex reality from within, its wounds and its hopes, and whom many people still affectionately call “Father Robert”.
For Father Lam, a native of Lima and former Provincial Prior of the Augustinian Province of Our Lady of Grace of Peru, Leo XIV’s return also represents an encounter with a shared history.
The Augustinian religious looks back on some of the key moments in his longstanding relationship with Robert Francis Prevost, whom he first met during his years of formation and encountered again in the exercise of leadership within the Order and later in his episcopal ministry.
Meeting Father Robert and the experience of Chulucanas
The two first met when Father Lam was still a novice and took part in an international gathering of young Augustinians in Ecuador. “I came from Lima and had received a different formation from the one offered in Trujillo. Despite those differences, I found in him a warm welcome, affection and the ability to understand me as a young man who was growing and maturing.” This openness to listening was something Father Lam would recognize in him in the years that followed. “He respected our individual paths of formation and accompanied us through both our successes and our mistakes.”
In those years, Robert Prevost had already experienced missionary life in the young Church of Chulucanas, in northern Peru, where the Augustinians had helped establish an ecclesial community deeply shaped by the renewal brought about by the Second Vatican Council.
“I believe that drawing on that experience, together with the religious spirit and culture of solidarity of the Peruvian people, left an indelible mark on the young Father Prevost,” Father Lam says.
A new missionary responsibility for the Augustinian Province of Peru
The relationship between the two religious grew stronger particularly during the years when Prevost served as Prior General of the Order. In 2010, Father Lam was elected Provincial Prior of the Province of Our Lady of Grace of Peru, one of the oldest Augustinian presences in Latin America, dating back to the sixteenth century.
“I was the first Peruvian to be called to this service in more than a hundred years,” he recalls. “Our Province gave rise to those of Ecuador, Colombia and Chile. Following Peru’s independence in the early nineteenth century, we were left with very few religious and received assistance from a Spanish Province. We hadn’t had a Peruvian Provincial Prior since then, until 2010…” He smiles.
His election marked the beginning of a transitional period, accompanied by expectations and complex decisions. “Together with my council, we embarked on several projects and made difficult decisions that also gave rise to misunderstandings. At the end of 2010, the Prior General summoned the newly elected Provincials to Rome. I was able to explain the reasons behind our decisions and was met with great attention and support, which helped us to move forward with confidence.” Father Lam stresses that this support continued to accompany the Province’s work in the following years, enabling it to fulfil its responsibilities with serenity and confidence.
In Chiclayo, a parish to reach the outskirts of the city
An episode from his years as bishop in Chiclayo provides a concrete picture of his pastoral and missionary concern. The Augustinian Province had been present in the city since 1965, initially with a seminary that later became Saint Augustine College. Shortly after taking up leadership of the diocese, Bishop Prevost asked Father Lam to place himself at the service of the people by establishing a new parish.
“He said to me: ‘Why don’t we open a parish?’ I replied: ‘Your Excellency, we don’t have that many friars.’ But he insisted: ‘I would like the Order to have a presence in the diocese. Send one more friar to the college community so that he can take care of the surrounding areas, the outskirts of the city. Whatever you manage to do will be far more than what we are able to do now.’”
Father Lam recalls the far-sighted and confident pastoral determination with which Bishop Prevost wanted to launch this mission in a vast diocese such as Chiclayo. “He had been a bishop for barely a year and was already concerned with reaching as many people as possible, so that no one would be left out.”
That request led to the establishment, in 2016, of Saint Augustine Parish, which still uses the college chapel as its parish church and serves five other chapels in the outlying areas of the city.
This concern for ensuring that no one was left on the margins, the Vicar General observes, went hand in hand with a spirit of fraternity that was also evident in everyday life. “He had no problem getting up, setting the table, cleaning or doing anything else. He did it all quite naturally. I believe this way of relating to others was enriched by Peru, by the spontaneous way our people have of showing affection, of making you feel part of their family, their lives, their problems, dreams, sorrows and hopes.”
The Peruvian experience and the universal Church
When Robert Prevost returned to Rome in 2023 as Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, he brought with him almost nine years of episcopal ministry in Chiclayo, twelve years as Prior General and extensive missionary experience in northern Peru.
“I believe Peru shaped his concrete understanding of the life of the Church and the spirit of renewal brought about by the Second Vatican Council,” Father Lam observes. This experience was complemented by his international leadership of the Order, through which he came into contact with different cultures and ecclesial realities.
“His Augustinian identity, lived and promoted in multicultural contexts, also left a particular mark on him. When he arrived in Rome as Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, he brought with him a profoundly pastoral outlook, matured through his experience of leadership, but also shaped by conciliar renewal and by his contact with the human reality of the Church at every level.”
In Rome, his bond with the Augustinian community remained close. “Even when he had his own apartment, he would come to the General Curia every day to celebrate Mass with us and have lunch with the community,” Father Lam recalls.
On the day of his election, May 8, 2025, Father Alexander was in St Peter’s Square. “When I heard his name announced, even though it seemed unbelievable, I began shouting a loud ‘yeah!’ for so long that I could not even hear the name he had chosen as Pope.”
A few minutes later, Leo XIV addressed his “querida diócesis de Chiclayo” in Spanish. “There was tremendous emotion, great affection, a great deal of cariño, as we say in Peru. There was gratitude and a desire to share that joy with people he loves and who are part of his life. His words spoke of the experience of a people, of fraternity and solidarity, of a living Church that seeks to remain faithful to Jesus, that believes, accompanies and loves its pastors. I believe those words spoke deeply of Peru.”
The wounds and hopes of the Peruvian people
The Peru awaiting Leo XIV is a country marked by social, political and economic difficulties, yet one in which faith continues to be an essential point of reference for many communities.
“Many emotions come together: joy, pride, respect and the hope that the Pope may be an instrument capable of inspiring everyone to bring about moral, social and institutional improvement, guided by the simple yet powerful logic of the Gospel,” Father Lam observes.
Expectations also concern the words the Pontiff will address to the country, which is called upon to face challenges affecting Church life, education, employment, healthcare and its institutions.
“Peru is a country inhabited by a religious people. For the vast majority, God is the One in whom they place their trust amid difficulties, as they tirelessly strive to move forward and provide for the well-being of those they love. I believe Peruvians certainly expect an appeal to faith, but also an invitation to live their work and their commitment to the community and the country with honesty and responsibility, enlightened by the Gospel of love and fraternity, and in pursuit of the common good.”
Father Lam also links this hope to the character of his people: “We Peruvians always say that we are a resourceful, resilient people. Even when it seems as though the world is
collapsing around us, we keep moving forward.”
Returning to Chiclayo to celebrate and give thanks
During the Apostolic Journey, Leo XIV’s return to Chiclayo holds particular significance for Father Lam, recalling the years in which Prevost shared the lives of local communities and accompanied the journey of the local Church.
“I believe returning to Chiclayo means returning to celebrate and give thanks. For an Augustinian, life is to be given and shared with others. For him, this will mean celebrating with those he has loved, with those who have loved him and continue to love him, and giving thanks for all he has received, because all of this helped make him who he is today.”
According to Father Alexander Lam, this experience also holds significance for the universal Church: “In Peru, Bishop Prevost encountered and shared gifts that he now wishes to pass on to the world. It is an experience that continues to give him strength, because in those communities he saw the ideal of the Church promoted by the Second Vatican Council embodied in everyday life.”
(Fides News Agency, 12/11/2026)
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