Pope Leo XIV is kicking off a three-nation tour of Latin America on Friday with a visit to Uruguay, the region's least Catholic and most secular country, three weeks after undergoing lung cancer surgery that had put the entire trip into question.

Leo is due to arrive in Montevideo after a 131/2-hour flight from Rome.

He has a packed three-day itinerary in Uruguay including a visit to a neighborhood plagued by gang violence, a Mass in Paysand, around 375 kilometers (230 miles) from the capital, and another Mass in the city of Florida, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) away from Montevideo.