Politics

Pope Leo XIV Arrives in Argentina for First Papal Visit in 36 Years

By AFP and Reuters

President Javier Milei greeted Pope Leo XIV upon the pontiff’s arrival at Jorge Newbery airport near Buenos Aires. Milei and his sister, presidential secretary Karina Milei, welcomed the pope on Sunday amid ongoing tensions between the government and the Catholic Church over austerity measures. Prior to arriving in Argentina, the pope spent three days in Uruguay, the first stop on his Latin American tour. He is the first pope to visit Argentina since John Paul II in 1987. Pope Leo’s itinerary in Argentina includes a welcome ceremony at Plaza San Martín and a meeting with Milei at the Casa Rosada, the presidential palace. The visit comes at a time when Catholic membership in Latin America is declining; a Pew Research Center survey found that in Argentina the percentage of self‑identifying Catholics fell from 71 % in 2013‑2014 to 58 % a decade later. Milei, who was raised Catholic, has suggested he has considered converting to Judaism. The Catholic Church has criticized Milei’s austerity measures, which cut social spending and safety‑net programs for the poor. Milei defends the cuts as necessary to control inflation, while some clergy have participated in protests against them. Pope Leo, 71, the first U.S.-born pope, will remain in Argentina until Wednesday, meeting officials, diplomats and civil society representatives, visiting a prison, and celebrating mass in Buenos Aires, Luján and the province of Córdoba before traveling to Peru, where he served as a bishop. The late Pope Francis, born in Buenos Aires in 1936, was the first pope from the Americas but never visited his home country as head of the Catholic Church. Francis died in 2025. Pope Leo’s visit is seen by some, such as Reverend Lorenzo “Toto” de Vedia, as a fulfillment of the late pope’s unfulfilled journey to Argentina.