The Pope Goes to Uruguay: A Country Where Christmas Is Called Family Day

In November 2026, Uruguay is expected to welcome the pope for the first time in nearly forty years. The news itself sounds unusual for the country.

Uruguay is considered one of the most secular countries in Latin America. The Church has been separate from the state for more than a hundred years. Easter is officially called ‘Tourism Week’ and Christmas ‘Family Day’. According to Latinobarómetro, more than half of the country’s population does not identify with any religion at all.

And it is to this country that the pope is now coming.

Perhaps that is why the visit is being discussed far beyond religious circles. For Uruguay, it looks less like a religious event than like a rare historical moment when a small country suddenly finds itself in the center of world attention.

Who is Leo XIV?

The current pope is Robert Prevost. He was born in Chicago and became the first American to sit on the Throne of St Peter.

But Latin America sees him differently. Prevost lived in Peru for nearly twenty years, obtained Peruvian citizenship, and worked as a missionary and bishop. To the region, he does not seem like a figure from a distant Vatican.

After Francis' death, his election came as a surprise. The new pope is less publicly visible and calmer in style, but has retained the previous pontificate’s main themes: poverty, migration, and social inequality.

In a Christmas address, he spoke about migrants crossing the Mediterranean and the Americas’ borders. During the conflict over deportations in the United States, he openly challenged the Trump administration and said that the Church should not remain silent where human dignity is at stake.

Why Uruguay has waited so long for this visit

Uruguay invited the Pope a long time ago.

There is an almost personal story behind this. Francis, an Argentine by birth, never visited neighbouring Uruguay during his twelve-year pontificate, although he visited many countries in the region.

For Uruguayans, it has become almost a symbol of relations between the two countries. Argentina is always big, noisy and conspicuous. Uruguay is next door, slightly off to one side.

For many, Leo XIV’s possible arrival feels like settling an old debt.

In the autumn of 2025, President Yamandú Orsi came to the Vatican with an official invitation. He presented the pope with a sculpture of a dove by Pablo Atchugarri and spoke of peace as the main topic of the meeting.

In January 2026, the Archbishop of Montevideo, Cardinal Daniel Sturla, met with the Pope in Rome. As they parted, Leo XIV said:

"See you in Uruguay."

Since then, it has been quoted almost as confirmation of the visit.

Where the Pope will go

The main events are likely to take place in Montevideo and the city of Florida.

In the capital, two venues for a large Mass are under discussion: the Centenario Stadium and Avenida Libertador. It is also part of the country’s collective memory. In 1987, John Paul II gathered about 150,000 people in the square near what is now Tres Cruces. Today, there is a bus station on the site.

Florida is different: it is a small city a hundred kilometres from the capital, home to the sanctuary of the Virgin of the Thirty-Three, Uruguay’s principal Catholic patroness.

During the nineteenth-century war of independence, rebels carried a wooden statuette of the Virgin on their campaigns. In 1988, John Paul II dedicated Uruguay to her.

Local residents are already discussing how to welcome pilgrims. The city is small, with about 33,000 inhabitants, and many recognise that there simply will not be enough hotel rooms.

How the country prepares

Although the Vatican has not yet announced official dates, preparations are already under way.

The Church has set up committees for event organization, security, and communications. Authorities are discussing street closures, motorcade routes, and transportation.

In Florida, hotels began receiving reservations even before the visit programme was published. Images of the pope have already appeared in some shops, while mayors from different cities send the archbishop photographs of their central squares in the hope that the pope will visit them.

For Montevideo, it is also an opportunity to present itself to the international press. Papal visits always attract journalists from all over the world, and in Uruguay such moments are rare.

The country he is coming to

Uruguay became secular very early and quite consciously.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, President José Batlle y Ordóñez introduced reforms that looked radical for Latin America at the time. Religion was removed from public schools, the church was finally separated from the state, and religious holidays were given neutral names.

Those names remain in use: Uruguayans officially have time off not for Easter but for ‘Tourism Week’.

The country has never been aggressively anti-religious; rather, it has remained calm and very distant from the Church.

According to the Pew Research Center, about 42% of the population identify as Catholic. However, significantly fewer actively practise their faith. Many have their children baptized or marry in a religious ceremony as part of a family tradition.

That is why the pope’s arrival is perceived differently here than in Brazil or Mexico. It is seen not as a familiar continuation of religious life but as an event that reaches far beyond the Church.

What Uruguayans themselves say

The most interesting thing right now is happening not in official statements but in comments and conversations.

On Reddit, one user wrote:

“I am an atheist, but I still want to see it. This happens once in a lifetime in Uruguay.”

In similar discussion threads, people argue not so much about religion as about the country itself. Some are pleased that Uruguay will finally feature in international news. Others ask how much money will be spent on security and closures.

Others joke:

‘The main thing is that the pope does not see the condition of Ciudad Vieja.’

After Leo XIV’s election in 2025, a meme circulated on Uruguayan social media: a child asks their mother, ‘Is there a pope?’ and she replies, ‘I bought some yesterday,’ using the Spanish word papa, which also means ‘potato.’

In Uruguay, even major world events quickly become occasions for self-irony.

But behind the jokes lies another mood. People are really curious. Even those who never go to church.

History of papal visits

Leo XIV will be only the second Pope to visit Uruguay in modern history.

The first was John Paul II, who visited twice, in 1987 and 1988. At that time the country was only beginning to return to normal life after military dictatorship, and his visits were seen as public as well as religious events.

Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets.

John Paul II’s trip to the city of Melo later inspired the famous Uruguayan film The Pope’s Toilet. This is a story about a poor resident of a border town who is trying to make money from the flow of pilgrims.

Almost forty years have passed since then. During this time, Uruguay has become even more secular, even more liberal, and even less like a typical Latin American Catholic country.

Perhaps that is why the pope’s visit has attracted such interest. In Uruguay, it is no longer only about religion. It is a story about the country’s identity, its place in the region, and the rare sense of a moment that suddenly matters to everyone.