Pope Leo XIV has begun his three-nation tour of Latin America with a visit to Uruguay, the region’s least Catholic and most secular country. The trip comes just three weeks after the 71-year-old pontiff underwent lung cancer surgery, which had raised doubts about whether he would be able to undertake the journey.

Despite the recent surgery, Leo is set to embark on a packed three-day itinerary in Uruguay, including visits to a neighborhood plagued by gang violence, Masses in Paysandú and Florida, and meetings with government officials and diplomats. The Vatican’s new communications chief, Maria Montserrat Alvar, has praised the pope’s stamina and quick recovery, noting that he has passed the required 14-day convalescence period.

Uruguay, which hasn’t had a papal visit since 1988, presents a unique challenge for the Catholic Church. The country is considered the most secular in Latin America, with only a fraction of self-identified Catholics regularly attending Mass. Uruguay was the first country in the world to legalize recreational marijuana, the second in Latin America to decriminalize abortion, and the third in the Americas to legalize same-sex marriage. More recently, it became the first country in the region to approve assisted dying legislation, despite strong opposition from the Catholic Church.

Leo is expected to remind Uruguayans of their strong Catholic heritage stemming from the times of Spanish colonial rule and to propose the faith as an answer to today’s challenges and problems. He is also likely to recall the church’s opposition to abortion and euthanasia as part of his broader argument about upholding human dignity in all phases of life.

Church officials in Uruguay have expressed surprise at the apparent enthusiasm the visit has generated, with tickets to Leo’s prayer vigil at Montevideo’s Centenario Stadium being snapped up in just two days. Guzmán Carriquiry, the Uruguayan former head of the Vatican’s pontifical commission for Latin America, believes that the pope’s presence will stir up questions about meaning and faith in the hearts of Uruguayans.

During his visit to Florida on Sunday, Leo is expected to revive the Catholic roots of Uruguay by marking the feast day of the Virgin of the Thirty-three, a small wooden icon of the Virgin Mary that is intricately connected to Uruguay’s independence movement. The feast commemorates the 33 independence patriots who acquired the Guaraní statue and had it with them when independence was declared from the Brazilian empire in Florida on Aug. 25, 1825.

While the pope’s visit has generated excitement, experts like Andrew Chesnut, chair of Catholic studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, remain skeptical about its long-term impact on revitalizing Catholicism in Uruguay, which he considers a “lost cause” for the church.

As Pope Leo XIV continues his Latin American tour, visiting Argentina and his former home of Peru, the world will be watching to see how he navigates the challenges of spreading the Catholic faith in an increasingly secular region