Uruguay admits Pope Leo as a licensed tourist attraction

The popemobile entered Uruguay on a sightseeing permit. Customs officers at Carrasco International Airport logged the white vehicle as a class B touring conveyance on Tuesday, collected a nine-dollar fee and reminded its driver to yield to pedestrians.¹

The paperwork set the tone. Pope Leo XIV's first South American tour, undertaken weeks after lung surgery and nearly four decades after a pope last came here, has been processed in full under Uruguay's tourism code. The Vatican signed every page.

Uruguay wrote the church out of its government more than a hundred years ago and has not looked back. Christmas is officially "Family Day." Holy Week is "Tourism Week." A pope, officials concluded, could be handled with the same forms.

So the Mass in Paysandú is licensed as an open-air choral assembly, large format. The homilies are billed as remarks. The greeting at Plaza Independencia went ahead as a scheduled appearance by a visiting dignitary, category two.

Officials at the ministry said the designations were a show of respect. The pope, one noted, now holds the highest visitor classification the country offers, a rank he shares with the tall-ship regatta.

"We receive the Holy Father the way we receive the cruise ships," said Daniela Píriz, director of ceremonial neutrality at the Ministry of Tourism. "With warmth, with signage and with a strict limit on how long anyone may block the square."

Píriz said the walking tour through a Montevideo neighborhood hit hard by gang violence would proceed with a licensed guide. Group size is capped at nine. The Vatican applied for extra guides and was granted four.

Her office also reviewed the wafers for the two outdoor Masses. They cleared inspection as unleavened catering, she said, and nine food-service permits were issued as a courtesy, though only two were strictly required.

The Vatican took all of it in stride. Leo landed in Montevideo after a flight from Rome of nearly 14 hours, smiled for the arrival cameras and was stamped in as a seasonal attraction, duration three days.

"The Holy Father has been called worse," said Monsignor Paolo Tassi, a Vatican spokesman traveling with the delegation. "He finds the categories accurate. He is, technically, visiting."

Tassi confirmed the pope would deliver his remarks in full and on schedule. He said the Holy See had reviewed the tourism code and found nothing in it that conflicted with canon law, adding that canon law contains no category for the tall ships either.

At a kiosk near the plaza, the designation was already moving product. Martín Roldán said he sold nine papal keyrings before noon on arrival day, most of them, he believes, to the same nun.

"People like that the government kept it normal," Roldán said. "Last month it was the regatta. This month it is him. Next month, who knows, maybe a very good magician."

Not everyone is relaxed about the arrangement. Officials in Argentina, the tour's second stop and the homeland of the late Pope Francis, have privately asked whether their own visit could be classified as something warmer, according to a diplomat briefed on the calls.²

Peru, the final stop, has gone the other way. Because Leo holds Peruvian citizenship from his two decades there as a missionary and bishop, the government announced he will clear immigration in Lima in the citizens' queue, behind everyone else, and will be asked if he has anything to declare.

The Vatican said the pope looked forward to declaring peace.

Back in Montevideo, the tourism ministry confirmed the visit would end like any other. The pontiff will receive the standard parting gift, a mate gourd and a discount voucher for the ferry to Buenos Aires, and his office will be asked to complete the national visitor satisfaction survey.

The Vatican submitted the survey early. Leo rated Uruguay nine out of nine in every category and wrote, in the space for comments, that he had not felt so welcome at an airport in years.

The nine-dollar sightseeing receipt, Tassi said, will be preserved in the apostolic archives. It is filed under transport.

Footnotes.

1. Class B covers open-sided vehicles whose passengers may wave but may not sell anything from the vehicle. ↩
2. Argentina was told the warmer categories are reserved for nationals of countries that have won the World Cup, and the call ended shortly afterward. ↩