Overview
- Sent as Pope León XIV’s special envoy, Cardinal Michael Czerny led the XXXIV World Day of the Sick in Chiclayo with hospital visits, blessings and meetings across Lambayeque.
- The itinerary included Almanzor Aguinaga Asenjo, Las Mercedes and Hospital Belén, where he greeted patients, thanked medical staff and offered apostolic blessings.
- He praised health workers for doing much with limited resources and condemned structural inequalities in access to care, urging health to be treated as a universal right.
- Regional and hospital leaders, including Lambayeque’s governor and the Belén hospital director, joined institutional events that emphasized Church–state cooperation on health.
- The Holy See confirmed a May 11 audience between Pope León XIV and President José Jerí at the Apostolic Palace, as Peruvian Church leaders voice expectations of a possible papal visit late in 2026.