Pope visits Argentina for first time in nearly four decades, amid tensions with Milei

For the first time in nearly four decades, a pope has visited Argentina. On Sunday, President Javier Milei and his sister and presidential secretary Karina Milei welcomed Pope Leo XIV, head of the Catholic Church, on his arrival at Jorge Newbery airport near Buenos Aires.

Before arriving in Argentina, the pope spent three days in Uruguay, the first stop on his tour of Latin America.

John Paul II visited Argentina in 1987. This is the first papal trip to the country since then.

In Argentina, Pope Leo's schedule includes attending a welcome ceremony at Plaza San Martin and a meeting with Milei at the Casa Rosada, the official presidential palace.

Leo, 71, is the first US-born pope. He will remain in Argentina until Wednesday and meet with officials, diplomats and civil society representatives.

He will also visit a prison and celebrate mass in Buenos Aires, Lujan, and the province of Cordoba, before travelling to Peru, where he spent years serving as a bishop.

Jorge Silanes, religious director at the Pequeno Cottolengo Don Orione, a home for people with disabilities in the Buenos Aires province, said, 'Without a doubt, it gives us great joy that this pope is visiting us.'

But the pontiff's visit comes at a time when relations between the government and Argentina's Catholic Church are strained. The church has criticised Milei's austerity measures, which included slashing social spending and safety-net programmes for the poor.

Milei has defended the budget cuts as necessary to bring inflation under control. Some members of the Catholic clergy, however, have taken a visible role in the protests against Milei's measures.

Membership in the Catholic Church is also shrinking in Latin America. As many as 425 million people in the region identify with the church, but their numbers have fallen over the last decade. A Pew Research Center survey found that, in Argentina, the percentage of self-identifying Catholics slipped from 71 percent in the 2013-2014 year to 58 percent a decade later.

Milei himself has suggested he considered converting to Judaism, though he was raised in the Catholic faith.

Pope Leo's predecessor, Francis, was born in Buenos Aires in 1936. He was the first pope from the Americas, but he never visited his home country as head of the Catholic Church. Francis died in 2025.

He and Milei had a notably contentious relationship, with the Argentinian president calling the late pontiff a 'communist' and an 'imbecile who defends social justice'.

Reverend Lorenzo 'Toto' de Vedia, who works with poor communities, said, 'Leo is going to make the visit that Francis never did.'