By Marco Aquino
LIMA, Aug 25 (Reuters) – Peru will welcome Pope Leo XIV in November with a hymn in honor of a Catholic nun killed by Maoist insurgents, celebrating the pontiff’s return to the country where he worked for decades as a missionary.
The song, featuring Andean rhythms and titled “Leon, Hermano del Camino” or “Leo, Brother on the Journey”, will be performed by members of the Aguchita youth choir, named after Peruvian missionary Maria Agustina Rivas.
Rivas was killed by Shining Path rebels in 1990 while carrying out humanitarian work in Peru’s remote Amazon jungle region.
Known as “Aguchita,” she was beatified by the Vatican in 2022 under Pope Francis after the Church ruled she had been killed out of hatred for the Catholic faith.
Keverly Escobar, 27, one of the lead singers, told Reuters she was proud to be part of the choir honoring a Peruvian saint who gave “her life for the most humble.”
The song’s composer and musician, Jaime Montoya, said he was inspired to write the hymn because he saw a common thread —sacrifice — that unites the missionary and Pope Leo.
“The song came about partly while looking back on the life of our then-bishop, Robert Prevost,” when the now-pontiff was a missionary in Peru, Montoya added.
Peru endured a brutal conflict between security forces and Shining Path, a guerrilla movement that sought to establish a communist state.
The violence left roughly 69,000 people dead or missing between 1980 and 2000, mostly in Peru’s poorer indigenous and Amazon communities, according to official estimates.
“Aguchita knew she was confronting Shining Path, which at that time had the government under pressure and wanted to force all communities to join its cause,” said Monsignor Pedro Castro of the Apostolic Vicariate of San Ramon, where the missionary served.
Pope Leo’s visit comes soon after President Keiko Fujimori took office in July, pledging to unite the country following years of political turmoil.
Fujimori, the daughter of former President Alberto Fujimori, has praised her father’s role in defeating the Shining Path insurgency in the 1990s, though his legacy remains divisive because of corruption and human rights abuses committed during his rule.
The hymn won a national competition to find a song symbolizing unity ahead of the Pope’s November 11 to 16 visit to Peru, part of a South American tour that will include Argentina and Uruguay.
Pope Leo, the first U.S.-born pontiff, first arrived in Peru in 1985 and became a Peruvian citizen in 2015 after being appointed bishop of Chiclayo, where he stayed until 2023.
(Reporting by Marco Aquino; Additional reporting by Carlos Valdez and Anthony Marina; Writing by Lucinda Elliott; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
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