Pope Leo heads to Milei's Argentina as tensions loom over austerity, Iran
Pope Leo XIV visits Argentina amid austerity-related tensions, with official data reporting 32.3 percent of the population, or 15 million people, lived in poverty during 2026.
- On Sunday, Pope Leo XIV arrived in Argentina following his Uruguay tour, where President Milei is scheduled to greet him at the airport for a traditional welcome ceremony.
- Since taking office in December 2023, Milei implemented sweeping austerity measures, including a 48 percent health care budget slash that intensified friction with church leaders criticizing his economic orthodoxy.
- Security officials reported a Saturday arrest regarding death threats against Leo, while posters reading "At last, a Lion who unites" appeared across Buenos Aires playing on the president's imagery.
- Karina Milei, the president's sister and secretary general of the presidency, insisted the trip is "purely religious," while theology professor David Lantigua anticipates tensions mirroring those faced by Pope Francis.
- Official data indicates poverty reached 32.3 percent of Argentina's population in early 2026, affecting about 15 million people amid deep polarization surrounding the pope's visit.
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The leader of the 1.4 billion Catholics in the world is expected to speak out in defense of the poor and the most vulnerable, amid the tensions that exist in Argentina due to the high social cost that Milei's "motosierra" has had in
"They taught their children to pray and today those children no longer pray. They went to Mass together and they have not entered a church for years," he said. But he urged them not to despair.
RIO DE JANEIRO. Francis never returned to his homeland as pope. Today, his successor Leo XIV lands in Buenos Aires instead. Argentina's ultra-liberal president Javier Milei is worried about the visit. The Catholic Church is among the most vocal opponents of his austerity policies.
The Pope has dismissed from Uruguay from the Catholic epicenter of the nation, the national sanctuary of the Virgin of the Thirty and Three, where the patroness of Uruguay is venerated. For centuries this carving was called Our Lady of the Painted, but it changed its name in 1825 when 33 patriots went to pray at her feet to swear the freedom of the country and ask her intercession for the campaigns of independence. The history of the place has a…
Pope Leo heads to Milei’s Argentina as tensions loom over austerity, Iran
By Leila Miller and Joshua McElwee Pope Leo heads to Argentina on Sunday for the second leg of a 12-day tour across South America, kicking off the visit with a closely watched speech to Argentine President Javier Milei, a libertarian seen as a close ally of Donald Trump. The address by the first US-born pope […]
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