With one week to go before Pope Leo XIV lands in Argentina, the government is seeking to avoid friction during his visit to the country. In recent days, Karina Milei, who has taken charge of the coordination, has made conciliatory gestures toward the Church and reinforced the request that there be no political use of the message the Supreme Pontiff will bring. In the final stretch of preparations for the pontiff's arrival, Javier Milei's officials are mobilizing resources and coordinating with the bishops to meet the demands of the Holy See. They have even designed an unprecedented security operation to protect Leo XIV during the mass events.
In the Executive Branch, they cling to the idea that Leo XIV is not coming to Argentina to confront Milei or to become an antagonist of his administration, even though they admit that the President's economic model is not aligned with, nor in tune with, the papal agenda, especially on social issues.
Karina Milei has taken the lead in the preparations for the Pope's visitPresidencia
"We are making a great logistical and economic effort; the Church asked us to be ecumenical and to dialogue with all the jurisdictions involved to coordinate the organization, and we did," says a source from the Executive Branch. Milei decreed a national holiday to facilitate the attendance of the faithful at the mass events and, as the Church had suggested, his administration will have representatives at the three Masses the Pope will celebrate during his stay in Argentina. The President will receive Leo XIV at the foot of the plane at Aeroparque and will be present at the Mass at the Monument to the Spaniards.
At this hour, the government has anticipated to the prelates in charge of organizing the visit that some of the Pontiff's events could be broadcast on national television.
Preparations for the stage setup at the Monument to the Spaniards for the Pope's visit
The officials who worked side by side with the bishops to organize the Holy Father's itinerary are convinced that Prevost will bring a "universal" message as leader of Catholics and that his words will have a pastoral character. The President himself described the papal trip as "a historic event" and complained that attempts are being made to drag the figure of Leo XIV into the "miserableness of politics."
At the top of the Church, they prefer to gloss over the tensions. They do not want to take a wrong step and are betting on avoiding a clash with Milei's administration that could tarnish the Pope's trip and, above all, the visit to the Cottolengo Don Orione, in Claypole, where some 400 people with severe disabilities live. They consider it "the highlight" of Leo XIV's agenda in the country.
Days ago, Karina Milei, the President's sister, asked representatives of the ruling party's blocs of deputies and senators who will attend the meeting next Sunday at the Palacio Libertad, where the Pope will meet with representatives of state institutions, civil society, and the diplomatic corps, to adopt a conciliatory attitude. "They don't want conflict," comments one of the Karinistas who will participate in the event. What's more: the libertarian legislators have already received precise instructions on how they should dress, so as not to violate the protocol norms of the Holy See.
In parallel, the Church is reinforcing its request to the government not to exclude any authority or political representative from the meeting to be held in the emblematic building that once housed the headquarters of the Post Office. "Let's hope they don't leave out any opposition deputy," anticipate ecclesiastical sources.
At the Casa Rosada, they believe the opposition could commit a "grave error" if it tries to use the Pope's speeches to discomfort Milei or strengthen itself in internal political battles. Nevertheless, they acknowledge that it will be inevitable for political readings to be made of Leo XIV's gestures and words.
In recent months, the government and the Vatican have made efforts to prevent the Pope's apostolic visit from being politicized. There were intense diplomatic negotiations behind the crafting of the pontiff's itinerary during the three days he will remain in the country. At the Casa Rosada, they highlight that there was consensus with the Church regarding which activities will be those where politics will have no place. That is the case, for example, of the tour Leo XIV will make of the Cottolengo Don Orione. Neither Governor Axel Kicillof nor Security Minister Alejandra Monteloliva, who will receive the Pope at the entrance to the grounds, will be able to accompany him during the visit.
The Church has placed high expectations on the activity at the Cottolengo Don Orione, which will put the spotlight on Milei's disability policy, as he has been the target of opposition criticism for funding cuts to the sector.
The Pope will tour the Cottolengo Don Orione during his visit to the countryRicardo Pristupluk
In the Episcopacy, they also want to avoid friction with the government in the run-up to the Pope's arrival. They value the dialogue and coordination with national authorities to organize the trip. They even define it as a "miracle of Leo XIV" that the ruling party accepted modifications to the text of the disability bill that received preliminary approval in the Chamber of Deputies. Those concessions—which came after strong pressure exerted by the Church—led Peronism to end up voting in favor of the initiative. Now the prelates hope the Senate will pass the law and that the libertarians will stop delaying consideration of the bill to combat gambling addiction, which is about to lose parliamentary status.
The last short circuit between the Casa Rosada and the Church occurred in early October, when Buenos Aires Archbishop Jorge García Cuerva declared that the Pope was going to "find a country divided and in crisis." At that time, Karina Milei was in Paris along with the President and much of the Cabinet for Argentina Week. The President's sister and her aides conveyed their displeasure to the Church over García Cuerva's remarks, who later clarified that he was not referring exclusively to Milei's administration. "That bothered us. We were collaborating, working together, and they didn't play fair; it seemed they were talking to the Pope," they acknowledge at Balcarce 50.
Leo XIV's message
Although the message Leo XIV will bring is an unknown, the bishops who have frequent exchanges with Rome repeat that the Pope is not coming to the country to generate discord or deepen internal divisions in society. On the contrary, they foresee that he will seek to promote fraternity.
In the Church, they are convinced that Leo XIV's reunion with Latin America will leave a roadmap for navigating the region's main challenges. From the new forms of contemporary indifference and the ethical challenges posed by Artificial Intelligence to the most earthly social debts, marked by polarization, social justice, poverty, and corruption, these are the axes the Pope is expected to address in the trip he will begin on November 6 in Uruguay.
The view on social reality, which the Milei government follows closely, was laid out at the meeting held Thursday that brought together ecclesiastical figures, academics, and political and social leaders convened by the Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI) at the Argentine Catholic University (UCA), the same venue where Leo XIV will meet with sectors of the world of work during his trip to Argentina.
There is awareness, as Pope Francis said in the midst of the pandemic, that "we are all in the same boat." But the Archbishop of Santiago de Chile, Cardinal Fernando Chomali, added a nuance: "Some are on an ocean liner and others face the tide in a very weak raft, which capsizes at the first wind."
The star of the meeting at the UCA was religious sister Alessandra Smerilli, the Pope's minister who heads the Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development, the Vatican body that until 2025 had Juan Grabois as an advisor. The day before, the Italian nun visited the Amanecer de los Cartoneros plant, in the Saavedra neighborhood, invited by the leader Sergio Sánchez, a reference figure of the Argentine Federation of Cartoneros, Carreros, and Recyclers. A gesture of closeness with the popular movements. In the Church, they considered it a relevant activity in the preparation of the Pope's visit.
The bishops of the region have no doubt that Leo XIV will speak of social justice, a concept that Milei once defined as "an aberration and a theft." Chomali is also clear that the Holy Father will speak about corruption, which he describes in simple words. "The drama of the world and of Latin America is corruption, which has a very terrible dynamic: it is the use of authority for one's own benefit, to the detriment of others, especially the poorest," warned the Chilean cardinal.
Monsignor Evelio Menjivar Ayala, bishop of Wheeling-Charleston, was the voice that came from the United States, Prevost's homeland. He presented the Pope as the synthesis of the dialogue between north and south and said that his figure "reminds us that from Chicago to Chiclayo—the Peruvian city where the Pope was bishop for eight years—there is a common thread."
The expectation of the region, especially in Peru, was conveyed by Monsignor Lizardo Estrada Herrera, coadjutor archbishop of Cusco and the only bishop in the world who speaks Quechua, the language of his people. "We await his word of hope and closeness. It will be a roadmap. Leo XIV knows very well the social, political, and economic aspects of the region," he anticipated.
By Matías Moreno, Mariano De Vedia