Larger-than-life Leo statue awaits the pope on Peru

Before Pope Leo reaches Peru later this week, a larger-than-life version is already waiting for him on the Pacific shore.



A towering white statue of the pontiff, arms stretched wide, was inaugurated on Monday ahead of Leo's final and most personal leg of his South American tour.

The 14-meter monument stands in Callao, a port city adjoining Lima, and is billed by its municipality as the world's tallest sculpture of a pope.



It depicts the first US-born pope in flowing white robes in a country that has embraced him as one of its own.



Leo’s arrival in Peru on Wednesday will cap his 12-day, three-country tour of Uruguay, Argentina and Peru, his first to South America as pope and a return to a region where he spent years as a missionary.



The 71-year-old pontiff has used the trip to call for greater unity in a politically divided region and to address an array of social, economic and environmental issues.