Pope Leo XIV arrived in Buenos Aires on Sunday 8 November for a visit that runs to 11 November. According to a programme published by Argentine media, President Javier Milei was due to greet him at the airport and meet him at the Casa Rosada.
Officials said they did not expect the Pope to intervene in domestic politics.
The trip is the first papal visit since John Paul II in 1987, according to the Buenos Aires Times, and Francis never returned as pope.
Two Views of the State
Milei has defended his austerity programme and rejected calls to soften it, saying “I am not going to engage in populism”. MercoPress reported that he has called social justice, a central theme for Leo, “an aberration”.
His supporters credit the spending cuts with lowering inflation, which had made Argentina’s economy unstable for years.
The Church sees the cost differently. A Conicet study found that 42 of 44 policy documents from the Argentine Bishops’ Conference, or 95 per cent, take a critical stance towards the government, MercoPress reported.
Bishops’ Conference president Marcelo Colombo called widespread hardship “a fact of reality, not something that needs to be proven”. Archbishop Jorge García Cuerva said people “need two or more jobs to make ends meet”.
Poverty Is Rising Again
Official statistics show poverty rising from 28.2 per cent in the second half of 2025 to 32.3 per cent in the first half of 2026. Extreme poverty rose from 6.3 to 7.5 per cent.
Unemployment reached 7.9 per cent in the second quarter, the highest since 2021. The Catholic University of Argentina estimates poverty could reach 35 per cent by year end.
The figures need context. Poverty had reached nearly 53 per cent in the first half of 2024, after the peso devaluation and spending cuts, so the current rate is still far lower.
Household income per person rose 11.5 per cent in the first half of 2026, while the poverty-line basket rose nearly 20 per cent. That gap helps explain why falling inflation has not made families feel better off.
A Church Speaking to a Changing Country
In his address to authorities, Leo called for policy that “ensures that economic growth also benefits those who are disadvantaged”. He also urged policies that stimulate private initiative, so his words fit neither camp neatly.
He added that “a nation must seriously ask itself where it has failed when its young people have to leave their homeland”. He also said authority “is most authentic when it is exercised as service”.
His moral authority reaches a less Catholic country than before. A University of Buenos Aires survey from February and March 2026 found 57.7 per cent of Argentines identify as Catholic, and 22.4 per cent have no religion.
Authorities expect about 7 million people at the events. On Monday Leo visits Pequeño Cottolengo Don Orione, a home for people with disabilities, a sector hit by spending cuts.
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