Pope Leo XIV’s visit to Argentina began on Sunday with a welcome from President Javier Milei at Jorge Newbery airport near Buenos Aires, marking the first papal trip to the country in nearly four decades.
Mr Milei was joined by his sister, presidential secretary Karina Milei, as they greeted the pope amid tensions between the government and Argentina’s Catholic Church over austerity measures.
Leo, 71, arrived in Argentina after spending three days in Uruguay, the first stop on his Latin American tour. He will remain in the country until Wednesday.
The Pope is due to attend a welcome ceremony at Plaza San Martin and meet Mr Milei at the Casa Rosada, the presidential palace.
His programme also includes meetings with officials, diplomats and civil society representatives, as well as a visit to a prison. He will celebrate Mass in Buenos Aires, Lujan and the province of Cordoba before travelling on to Peru, where he spent years serving as a bishop.
Pope Leo XIV’s Argentina visit comes amid tensions over austerity
The visit comes as the Catholic Church faces declining membership across Latin America, where it remains the largest religious group, with as many as 425 million people identifying as Catholic.
In Argentina, the share of people who identify as Catholic fell from 71 per cent in 2013-14 to 58 per cent a decade later, according to a Pew Research Center survey cited in the source material.
The Church has criticised Mr Milei’s austerity programme, which included cuts to social spending and safety-net schemes for poor people. The president has defended the reductions as necessary to bring inflation under control, while some Catholic clergy have taken a visible role in protests against the measures.
Mr Milei was raised Catholic but has said he considered converting to Judaism. His relationship with the previous pope, Francis, was notably contentious, with the president calling the late pontiff a “communist” and an “imbecile who defends social justice”.
Francis, who was born in Buenos Aires in 1936 and died in 2025, was the first pope from the Americas but never visited Argentina as head of the Catholic Church.
“Leo is going to make the visit that Francis never did,” said Reverend Lorenzo “Toto” de Vedia, who works with poor communities in a Buenos Aires neighbourhood.
Jorge Silanes, religious director at the Pequeno Cottolengo Don Orione home for people with disabilities in Buenos Aires province, said: “Without a doubt, it gives us great joy that this pope is visiting us.”
