Pope tells Peru's bishops to accompany their flocks and respond to abuse victims with truth, justice

LIMA, Peru (AP) — After his emotional homecoming, Pope Leo XIV got down to work Thursday telling Peru's Catholic bishops to accompany their flocks as they face poverty and injustices, and respond to victims of clergy sexual abuse with truth, justice and amends.

Leo made it clear he knows the Peruvian church and people well in his opening events in Lima, identifying some of the biggest challenges facing them and calling the influential Catholic hierarchy especially to task to be models of unity and communion.

Peruvians turned out in droves to catch a glimpse of Leo, with crowds outside the church residence where he is staying and an even bigger gathering of 40,000 at the central Plaza Mayor where he had his first events Thursday. Leo thrilled them by looping around the plaza in his popemobile and they responded with their chant: “The pope is Peruvian!”

Leo has been serenaded by a children’s choir belting out a catchy tune composed especially for his trip, accompanied by Andean flutes: “Papa León, hermano del camino, Papa León, sembrador de fraternidad." (“Pope Leo, brother on the journey, Pope Leo, sower of brotherhood.”)

“It’s a blessing not only for us Chiclayans but for all of Peru," said Ángel 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.

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.

Citing local authorities, the Vatican estimated that some 3 million people had lined Leo's motorcade route on Wednesday to welcome “Padre Robert” home. The Chicago-born pope, who also has Peruvian citizenship, responded with an emotional ode to all that Peru had given him.

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 traveled 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.

The online database BishopAccountability has identified 77 priests, brothers, seminarians and lay 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.

Leo, who was the Peruvian bishops' point-person to welcome victims while he was Chiclayo bishop, was expected to meet with survivors during his stay in Peru. A protest by a victims group was also planned later Thursday.

Peruvian Cardinal Pedro Barreto, the president of the Amazonian bishops conference, said Leo was acutely attuned to the needs of the Peruvian people and church, and would offer words of consolation and advice during his days crisscrossing the country, from his beloved Chiclayo in the north to the Andes and rainforest.

“Leo will listen to the anguish and hopes of the Indigenous peoples, especially the pain caused by the violence affecting girls, boys, adolescents, and young people,” said Barreto, who was close friends with both Prevost and his predecessor, Pope Francis, a Jesuit like Barreto.

He predicted Leo would pay special attention to a recent case in the province of Condorcanqui, in the northern Peruvian jungle, where teachers sexually abused Indigenous Awajún and Wampis girls.

“Pope Leo will reaffirm the church’s commitment to continue accompanying Indigenous peoples in defending life, their dignity as persons, their cultures, and in caring for the Amazon,” Barreto said.

The Rev. Peter Hughes, an 84-year-old Irish priest who has lived in Peru for more than 60 years, said Leo was comfortable in Peru not only because he had it as his home, but because he sees its poverty and political polarization as mirroring the global situation.

“That is what makes leaders like Pope Francis and Pope Leo speak the language of the Gospel in very human terms, putting a premium on justice and peace,” he said. “In the Christian sense of justice, the most important people are the poor, the marginalized, and those who have no voice."

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

The faithful wait to greet Pope Leo XIV as he makes his way to the archbishop's residence in Lima, Peru, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Miguel Paredes)

The faithful pray in Plaza de Armas as they await Pope Leo XIV's arrival at the archbishop's residence in Lima, Peru, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

Pope Leo XIV arrives for a meeting with the bishops of Peru at the chapel of the Archbishop's Residence in Lima, on the seventh day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Leo XIV attends a meeting with the bishops of Peru at the chapel of the Archbishop's Residence in Lima, on the seventh day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (Yara Nardi, Pool via AP)

The faithful greet Pope Leo XIV as he arrives for a meeting with Peru's bishops at the archbishop's residence in Lima, Peru, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

Pope Leo XIV attends a meeting with the bishops of Peru at the chapel of the Archbishop's Residence in Lima, on the seventh day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (Yara Nardi, Pool via AP)

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — An Israeli airstrike hit one of the main hospitals still operating in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing six people, including a surgeon and a 13-year-old boy, Gaza’s Health Ministry said.

The Israeli military said the strike on Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza was targeting a Hamas commander and other militants, without providing evidence. The commander it identified was not among the dead.

The strike hit the hospital's surgical wing, the ministry and witnesses said. Footage showed several wards and operating rooms heavily damaged or destroyed, with debris scattered across hospital beds and equipment and rebar dangling from holes in the ceiling. At least 28 people were wounded.

Among the dead were Dr. Rizk Abu Shaira, a general surgeon, and at least two patients, one of them the 13-year-old, according to the ministry.

Gaza's healthcare infrastructure has been decimated by a yearslong war whose trajectory is not expected to be altered by the outcome of Israel’s recent election. The Israeli military has raided or laid siege to hospitals across the territory, accusing Hamas of using them as command centers and to hide fighters. Israel has also destroyed medical equipment and supplies and killed or detained hundreds of healthcare workers.

British surgeon Goher Rahbour, who is volunteering at Nasser Hospital, said that the strike occurred just after midnight and shook the whole building.

“It was extremely smoky,” said Rahbour, who was on the fourth floor of the surgical department at the time. The recovery area on the same floor was reduced to rubble, he said.

He said he had been operating alongside Abu Shaira just hours before the strike. “Lovely guy, happy and smiling,” Rahbour said.

Ahmed al-Farra, a doctor and the general director of the hospital, said no warning came before the attack. He said surgeries had been suspended, as had work in the radiology department and the laboratory, because of damage to the building where medical personnel were already struggling to provide care due to supply shortages and “miserable” conditions.

He said other nearby medical facilities were not equipped to do the type of “specialized surgeries” that Nasser Hospital had been providing, leaving patients in need of them to “face an unknown fate.”

He said an attack on a hospital should be met with a forceful response from the international community. “Imagine if this event happened in another country in the world. Would the world fall silent about it? No, by God, no.”

“No one’s safe here,” he added, switching from Arabic to English.

A report from the United Nations, World Bank and European Union said in April that more than 1,800 medical facilities in Gaza have been partially or completely destroyed since the conflict began.

Israeli forces have previously attacked Nasser Hospital. In 2025, the military killed 22 people when it struck a gathering point for local reporters at the complex. Among the dead were five journalists, including Mariam Dagga, who worked for The Associated Press.

In armed conflict, hospitals and their staff are protected under international humanitarian law. A hospital can lose its protected status, however, if it is used for military purposes.

Hamas security men have been seen in hospitals during the war, controlling access to certain areas. In a statement on Thursday, the Israeli military said Hamas had “established a presence within the hospital complex” and that the commander had turned it “into a headquarters.”

The World Health Organization said Gaza's health facilities should never be militarized or attacked. “Health needs remain immense in Gaza and will only grow as winter sets in,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

The Trump administration-backed Board of Peace said similar attacks are inevitable unless both Israel and Hamas honor commitments made under a stalled ceasefire plan the board has struggled to move forward.

The war in Gaza started on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 others hostage. Since then, Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 74,600 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, maintains detailed records, and its figures are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts. It does not distinguish between civilians and militants in its toll but says women and children make up around half the dead.

Israel has continued to strike Gaza despite a U.S.-backed ceasefire and controls at least 60% of the enclave. Since the truce went into effect in October 2025, Israeli strikes and gunfire have killed 1,622 people, health authorities say. Five Israeli soldiers have also been killed during that period.

Ezzidin reported from Cairo.

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

A medical staff member salvages medical equipment at Nasser Hospital after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike overnight in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

People look at remnants of an Israeli projectile after an overnight airstrike hit Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

A medical staff member salvages medical equipment at Nasser Hospital after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike overnight in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

People inspect damage to Nasser Hospital after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike overnight in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Mourners carry the bodies of Palestinians killed in an Israeli airstrike on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Medical staff inspect damage to Nasser Hospital after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike overnight in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

People walk at Nasser Hospital after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike overnight in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Mourners attend the funeral of Khalid Abu Anza, 53, who was killed in an overnight Israeli airstrike on Nasser Hospital, in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinians inspect damage to a building and tents a day after they were hit by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinians inspect their damaged tent a day after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)