Pope Leo XIV urges Peru to embrace Catholic social teaching for a better society

LIMA, Peru — Pope Leo XIV called on Peru to support the traditional family, respect cultural diversity, and defend the rights of women — all in fidelity to the social doctrine of the Church.

“At the center of every social, economic, and political organization must be the human person, created in the image and likeness of God, endowed with infinite dignity and called to live in relationship with others. On this basis, the personal, familial, and social good come together as one reality,” Leo said on Nov. 12 to an estimated 40,000 people gathered in Lima’s main square.

The topic of the event was “the challenges and hopes for the future of the Peruvian people.”

Leo’s remarks underscored how Catholic social teaching cuts across positions that secular politics typically categorize as right- or left-wing.

The pope said that human dignity requires that every child be conceived through natural means and that recent changes in sex roles require the Church “to assert with even greater conviction that God created the human person male and female.”

Members of the crowd become emotional during the “Meeting on the Challenges and Hopes for the Future of the Peruvian People” with…