Image source, Courtesy Mildred Camacho.
Pope Leo XIV is called His Holiness, Supreme Pontiff or Holy Father. Few people can call him godfather. The Peruvian Mildred Camacho is one of them.
He speaks to BBC Mundo in advance of the return of the successor of San Pedro to Chiclayo, in northern Peru, the city where he was bishop between 2015 and 2023 and the area where he developed much of his pastoral work.
"Your visit will be a moment that I feel is very much mine and that of my family," Camacho tells me.
Three decades ago, when the pope was "young Father Robert," he agreed to the humble request of his friend Héctor Camacho, Mildred's father.
"Father, I want my daughter to bear the name of her recently deceased mother, Mildred, and for you to be her godfather at her baptism," he recreates for BBC Mundo.
Robert Prevost Martínez's name is handwritten on Mildred's baptism certificate. He also appears in the photos with Héctor and the priest who made the immersion official.
An ordinary 30-year-old woman from the city of Chulucanas was linked to the first pontiff with American and Peruvian nationality to head the Catholic Church.
Mildred says her life changed unexpectedly after 133 cardinals around the world elected her godfather on May 8, 2025, succeeding Pope Francis, who died a couple of weeks ago of cardiovascular collapse.
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The acquaintances blew up his phone with rings. Journalists lined up at its doors. He says that for the first time he cried with happiness: "I have never felt such great joy."
His godfather now returns to Peru a little less than a year after his appointment on a Latin American tour that also included Uruguay and Argentina.
This is how she and her father tell the anecdote that forever linked them to the 267th pope in the history of Catholicism.
Father Robert's friend
Image source, Courtesy Héctor Camacho.
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Leo XIV, born in the United States in 1955, lived several times in Peru between 1985 and 2023.
The first stage began in 1985, three years after his priestly ordination.
He was assigned to Chulucanas, in the Piura region, where he served for a year as vice parish priest of the Sagrada Familia cathedral and chancellor of the then territorial prelature.
There Héctor Camacho met him: "I was an altar boy and was part of a group of young people who worked very closely with him. He was a very young priest and quickly became a leader for us."
That priest was left with the name "Father Robert" and a reputation for being jovial and close to the community.
There are several Peruvians who have photos with Prevost that seem to confirm this.
After his first year in Peru, the young priest returned to the United States.
"I thought we would never see him again," says Camacho, but the current Pope was once again assigned to the Andean country. This time to Trujillo, also in the north of the country, about 420 kilometers from Chulucanas.
"There our relationship was strengthened more," says Camacho, who also moved to that city at that time.
There he shared some of the 11 years that Prevost lived between 1988 and 1999.
"In '96, after my daughter was born, I asked him to be her godfather at her baptism. I also wanted to pay tribute to her mother by giving her the same name. She accepted both with great simplicity and enthusiasm," says Camacho.
"He came to Chulucanas for the baptism and shared that day with my entire family," he adds.
Image source, Courtesy of Mildred Camacho
The rise of the godfather
"Many people believe that I had a constant relationship with him, but the truth is that we saw each other rarely because his work took him to different places," says Mildred.
Between 1999 and 2014 Prevost rose through the ranks of the Church. He spent 15 years in the United States until Francis appointed him apostolic administrator of the Peruvian diocese of Chiclayo.
In 2015 he obtained Peruvian nationality and in the same year he was appointed bishop of Chiclayo.
Later he was commissioned with positions as second vice president of the Peruvian Episcopal Conference, member of the Congregation for the Clergy, apostolic administrator of the diocese of Callao and member of the Congregation for Bishops.
During all this time, both Mildred and her father recount the contacts they received from Prevost, telling about their travels.
"And, when we met, there was always affection and closeness. It never changed. We always felt well received," father and daughter agree.
Image source, Courtesy Héctor Camacho
"I never felt him absent. I consider him family," adds Mildred.
The Camachos' experience coincides with the festive atmosphere of Chiclayo these days. It is similar to the one I experienced when I visited this city a few hours after Prevost was elected Pope in May 2025.
By then he had been living in Rome for two years, increasingly closer to Francisco, but his mark in Chiclayo was indelible.
Several parish priests, entrepreneurs, drivers and parishioners boasted to me about the occasional anecdote they shared with Prevost.
They especially remember his work for the integration of migrants and neighborhoods forgotten by the State, as well as his involvement after the ravages of the El Niño phenomenon in 2017.
His photos knee-deep in floods went around the world.
The consecration
The Pope's goddaughter remembers her election as one of the most exciting moments of her life.
"I was in the middle of moving when the white smoke came out. I knew that he was among the cardinals considered papal, but I never imagined that he would be chosen," says Mildred.
Then it was announced. The cardinal protodeacon, Dominique Mamberti, appeared in St. Peter's Square in the Vatican and pronounced the traditional Habemus Papam.
"I called my father screaming after hearing his name. We both cried with happiness. Then many people began to be interested in our family history," says Mildred.
Along with her, millions of Peruvians celebrated the election of a pontiff with Peruvian nationality whom they consider one of their own.
"Pope Leo XIV is coming home," read several announcements in Lima during his visit.
In the summer of this year, Mildred received a special gift from her father: a trip to Rome where she got to see and greet her godfather and give him a gift.
"That had enormous emotional value for me," he acknowledges.
Pope Leo XIV returns home
The Supreme Pontiff presides over a massive mass in the Pampas de Pimentel, 11 kilometers from Chiclayo, on Friday, November 13.
Many parishioners have been on vigil since the night of the 12th.
It is a historic moment for the people of Chiclayo, who have been on the lips of the world since, in his first words as Pope, Leo XIV sent greetings to his "beloved diocese of Chiclayo."
In this city he will also preside over the coronation rite of the Immaculate Virgin in the Cathedral of Santa María, in addition to other meetings.
Tickets for these events are sold out. The city turned upside down.
Mildred will try to travel as a volunteer from Chulucanas.
"I'm looking forward to the return of my godfather. I don't know if I'll be able to see him nearby. Thousands will want to accompany him, but it makes me happy to know that he will return to the place where he built so many ties," he comments.
Indeed, as the posters and so many Peruvians say, Leo XIV is coming home.
Perhaps nowhere else in the world is there a family that can call him godfather or compadre before His Holiness.
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