'Don't Forget the Chapel': How Pope Leo XIV's Private Promise Helped Revive Chiclayo's Poorest Parish in Peru

Five words from a man who had not yet become pope functioned, for years, as a neighborhood's lifeline. "Don't forget the chapel" — a phrase the parish priest attributes to the future Leo XIV — was the recurring instruction that kept a construction project in Lima's orbit long after Chiclayo's bishop left for Rome. On November 13, 2026, at 12:40 p.m., that phrase lands on the Vatican's official South American schedule: a private visit to the San Óscar Romero chapel in Chiclayo's La Victoria district.

This is not a diplomatic formality. It is the close of a cycle that began in one of Chiclayo's humblest neighborhoods, with a temple that was running out of time.

The Chapel That Could Not Wait

The San Óscar Romero chapel had served the working-class families of La Victoria for more than three decades when structural inspections delivered an unambiguous conclusion: the building had exceeded its serviceable life, and partial repairs were no longer viable. Total demolition and reconstruction were the only path forward.

For Father Alonso Serquén Montehermoso, the parish priest responsible for that community, financing a project of that scale through neighborhood raffles, volleyball tournaments, and community bingo nights was not a realistic option. The chapel's survival depended on external support — and on someone with the right connections to find it.

The Connection That Reached From La Victoria to Rome

The project's trajectory changed when Father Alonso shared the chapel's situation with a fellow priest who had grown up on those same La Victoria streets: Edgard Rimaycuna Inga, now Monsignor and personal secretary to Pope Leo XIV. Rimaycuna brought the proposal forward to associates close to then-Cardinal Robert Prevost, who reviewed the documentation, assessed the budget, and approved the initial funding.

When engineers subsequently concluded that renovation was impossible and ordered full demolition, Father Alonso presented an updated cost estimate. The donors approved it too — without hesitation.

Why American Benefactors Trusted This Parish

According to the parish priest, what convinced overseas donors to commit was not the project's scope — it was the name attached to it. Prevost's years as Bishop of the Diocese of Chiclayo, from 2015 through his departure for Rome in 2023, had built a documented record of fiscal accountability in pastoral and social initiatives. That track record gave benefactors on the other side of the hemisphere sufficient confidence to open their checkbooks.

A Pope Who Never Stopped Asking

What Father Alonso recounts with the greatest pride is not the dollar figure behind the reconstruction. It is the frequency with which Leo XIV — even after his election — continued to ask Rimaycuna about the chapel's progress. The phrase "Don't forget the chapel," the priest says, was a standing instruction that crossed Vatican walls without weakening.

The clearest material signal of that commitment arrived in August 2025, just months after the papal election: Leo XIV sent Rimaycuna to Chiclayo to preside at a Mass in the San José Obrero parish and deliver in person both a papal miter and a financial contribution designated for the San Óscar Romero chapel's construction. That miter now hangs in the parish. The chapel stands just steps away.

The Official Schedule Confirms What La Victoria Has Been Waiting For

The Holy See Press Office has confirmed Leo XIV's first apostolic journey to South America, covering Uruguay, Argentina, and Peru between November 6 and 17, 2026. Peru accounts for the longest portion of the tour — six days, from November 11 through 16 — with Lima, Chiclayo, Cusco, and Pucallpa as the confirmed cities. Peru's government formalized the occasion's national relevance through Supreme Resolution No. 132-2026-RE.

On the morning of November 13, Leo XIV will preside over a Mass at the Pampas de Pimentel — a site prepared to receive more than one million worshipers. At 12:40 p.m., the official itinerary places him at the San Óscar A. Romero Chapel for a private visit and greeting.

Why This Stop Matters Well Beyond Chiclayo

The Lambayeque Regional Government has committed approximately 150 million soles to prepare the city for the papal arrival — an extraordinary logistical mobilization. But in La Victoria, the weight of November 13 is not measured in infrastructure budgets or projected crowd sizes.

It is measured in the distance between a chapel that once faced demolition as its only future, and the one that now stands finished — waiting for the man whose repeated, quiet insistence that it not be forgotten turned out to be the most consequential thing he ever said about it.

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