President Claudia Sheinbaum said Wednesday she will keep pressing the Vatican for a papal visit to Mexico, even as Pope Leo XIV confirmed a November tour of South America that leaves the country off the itinerary.
“We’re going to insist on the pope’s visit to Mexico,” Sheinbaum told reporters during her morning press conference at the National Palace, hours before receiving Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin. Mexico’s government sent a formal invitation in May 2025, at the start of Sheinbaum’s administration, and she said she raised it again personally during a phone call with the pope on Dec. 12.
Skipping Mexico
The Holy See announced Wednesday that Leo XIV will travel to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru from Nov. 6 to 17, his first papal trip to Latin America and the sixth international journey of his pontificate. The pope will visit Montevideo, Paysandú and Florida in Uruguay, then Buenos Aires, Córdoba and the Marian shrine of Luján in Argentina, before ending in Peru with stops in Lima, Chiclayo, Cusco and Pucallpa.
Peru holds particular significance for Leo XIV, who spent decades there as a missionary and later served as bishop of Chiclayo before becoming pope in 2025. He also holds Peruvian citizenship. The visit will additionally mark the first papal trip to Argentina and Uruguay in nearly 40 years, and the first time a pope has set foot in Argentina since Pope Francis, who was born in Buenos Aires but never returned home during his 12-year papacy.
Mexico last hosted a pope in 2016, when Francis toured several cities, including a stop in Chiapas. The invited the pope to Yucatán back in 2021, when Cardinal Parolin made an earlier visit to the region, though that trip never materialized either.
Why Mexico Isn’t on This Itinerary
The Vatican has given no official explanation for leaving Mexico off the schedule, and nothing in the announcement suggests the country was deliberately passed over. A few factors help explain the choice of destinations instead.
Peru, Argentina and Uruguay each carry a personal or symbolic pull that this particular trip was built around. Leo XIV’s decades-long history in Peru made a return there something close to inevitable. Argentina’s inclusion closes a gap left by Pope Francis, who never managed a homecoming trip during his own papacy. And Uruguay, where Catholics make up a smaller share of the population than anywhere else in the region, hasn’t had a papal visit in decades.
Mexico, by contrast, appears to be a matter of timing rather than exclusion. In November 2025, Leo XIV told reporters that the Marian shrine of Guadalupe was among his top destinations, alongside Peru, Argentina and Uruguay. Asked when a Latin America swing might happen, he said travel planning would ramp up gradually the following year, citing a full calendar of Vatican commitments. That suggests Mexico could still get its turn on a future trip rather than having been ruled out.
The Pope’s Stance on AI
Sheinbaum argued that a visit from Leo XIV would carry weight beyond religious circles, pointing to the pontiff’s writings on artificial intelligence as a reason his voice matters in Mexico’s own policy debates. She cited the encyclical “Magnifica Humanitas,” published in May, in which the pope addresses protecting individuals as AI technology expands.
According to Sheinbaum, the document has become an international reference point for questions about who controls digital platforms, how algorithms function and who benefits from their use.
“It’s a very important debate globally, and one that we’re having in Mexico too,” she said, adding that Leo XIV has called for public regulation of artificial intelligence and closer scrutiny of its effects — a discussion she linked to Mexico’s own conversations about social media and content moderation.
Church and State
Despite her praise for the pope’s positions, Sheinbaum reiterated that Mexico will maintain the separation of church and state, saying it’s still worthwhile to weigh in on the pope’s views on AI and other humanitarian issues. She noted that any papal visit would carry deep meaning for millions of Catholic Mexicans, even as she framed the invitation as being about more than religion.
No new date has been set for a Mexico stop, and the Vatican has not indicated one is under discussion for the current tour.
Fast Facts
- Mexico’s invitation to Pope Leo XIV dates to May 2025.
- Sheinbaum discussed the invitation with the pope by phone on Dec. 12.
- The pope’s South America tour runs Nov. 6-17, 2026.
- Stops include Uruguay, Argentina and Peru, but not Mexico.
- Leo XIV has named Mexico’s Guadalupe shrine among his desired destinations.
- Pope Francis last visited Mexico in 2016.
With reporting from Diario de Yucatán and the Vatican confirms itinerary announcement.