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BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (RNS) — In an exchange of speeches that kicked off the first papal visit to Argentina since 1987, Pope Leo XIV nudged Argentina’s leaders to continue to invest in social programming. At the same event Sunday (Nov. 8), Argentina’s President Javier Milei, previously a papal critic, struck a conciliatory tone and mounted a theological defense of his economic policy, which has been criticized by local Catholic leaders.
“We should govern for all and work for the common good. That is the certainty, the teaching and the profound responsibility that the faith imposes upon us,” Milei said in Spanish. Economically, he said, “that means that at the hour of making decisions, we don’t just focus on what a single sector needs in a specific moment, but instead on the benefit to all of society in the present and in the future.”
Leo arrived in Argentina on Sunday for a papal visit that many Argentines had hoped would occur during the papacy of Pope Francis, the first Argentine pope. During Leo’s visit, which will last until Wednesday, he will hold several large Masses in Buenos Aires, Córdoba and Lújan, meet with union and business leaders, visit a prison and a residential home for people with disabilities that has been impacted by government budget cuts.
A recent survey found that 16.5% of Argentine adults, or over 5 million adults, planned to go see Leo. Another third of Argentine adults were undecided at the time of the survey, which was conducted two months ago by the Rev. Gustavo Morello, an Argentine Jesuit professor of sociology at Boston College, with Hugo Rabbia at the Universidad Católica de Córdoba.
“There’s no political or social leader that will gather that amount of people in Argentina,” Morello told RNS of the pope’s visit.
Argentina is the second leg of the pope’s three-nation South America tour, between Uruguay and Peru, where Leo spent two decades of his career as a missionary priest and, later, a bishop.
About a mile away from the Casa Rosada, Argentina’s presidential palace, unofficial posters revealed some of the tension bubbling under the surface at the Palacio Libertad, the site of the speeches. The unofficial posters said in Spanish, “Finally, a Leo that unites us.” In Spanish, the word for Leo and lion, a core symbol for President Milei, are the same.
Milei had a contentious relationship with Leo’s predecessor, Pope Francis. As a television personality, before he was elected president, Milei called Francis an “imbecile” and a “son of a bitch” and said he was the representative of evil. After he became president, Milei softened his tone and had a meeting with Francis at the Vatican.
Leo began his speech by acknowledging that Argentina’s connection to Francis made Leo’s arrival “personally meaningful.” He said, “I am in some sense retracing his steps in this country where the personal history of Pope Francis would later be joined to that of the entire Church.”
“For years, the universal Church listened to the voice of an Argentinian Pope, who treasured, in his memories and in his heart, the places, the people and the faith that he received here,” Leo said.
Milei also recognized Francis, calling him “the most important Argentine in history” and a “person of immense generosity.” Milei added, “His exit left an enormous empty space in all our people, as much for the faithful as for those who do not belong to the church.”
After he became pope, Francis continued to show public interest in Argentina and said he wanted to return, but in his 12-year papacy, he never made it back. Many analysts speculated that Francis avoided returning because he worried his visit would be used for political purposes amid Argentina’s deep polarization, especially given a belief among some Argentines that Francis supported the Peronist political movement, Argentina’s long-dominant populist movement and Milei’s main opposition.
In his speech, Leo underlined the importance of democracy, calling it “a part of Argentina’s heritage that needs to be safeguarded.”
Milei, an ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, claimed there was fraud in the first round of the 2023 presidential election and attempted to spread doubt about the integrity of the runoff, which he eventually won.
“The freedom to elect one’s own leaders through the ballot box, to participate in public life, freely to express one’s convictions, to have confidence in the law, and to view institutions as serving the interests of all parties: these are values that are consolidated over time and that each generation is called to care for,” the pope said.
Leo also emphasized investment in a number of public policy priorities, including many that Milei has made cuts to, though Leo did not directly criticize the president. Leo praised public policy that creates opportunities for work, ensures economic growth, benefits disadvantaged people and strengthens education.
In his bid for office, Milei would often hold up a chainsaw – a symbol of his promise to shrink the government and reduce spending — promising to eliminate the ministries of education, public works and health. This year, tens of thousands of Argentines protested the Milei administration’s decision to challenge a Congressional law funding universities and raising teacher pay in line with inflation, which Milei had refused to implement.
Although the poverty rate in Argentina during his term peaked in 2024 at 53%, after Milei devalued the peso, it fell nearly 50% in 2025 as inflation slowed, mostly due to Milei’s spending cuts. However, the poverty rate climbed again in 2026 with about a third of the country now living in poverty.
Buenos Aires Archbishop Jorge García Cuerva has repeatedly criticized the impacts of Milei’s austerity policies, saying last year, “Argentina is bleeding from inequality.”
Leo touched on other policy priorities that have also been controversial under Milei’s leadership, including environmentalism and artificial intelligence. Milei has dismissed climate change as a “socialist lie” and reduced budgets for environmental protection. Meanwhile, he has pushed for strong state incentives to attract foreign technology companies, as well as the de-regulation of AI in Argentina.
Leo spoke of the importance of environmental stewardship, saying, “A truly human ecology will combine care for creation with care for people, and ensure that the use of those resources contributes to the wellbeing of communities and preserves the conditions that make life and work possible in their territories.”
And the pope argued for caution on AI and other “rapid technological advances.”
“These advances call for a careful consideration of the consequences of their application and the responsibilities of those who decide how to use them. Technological development requires an ethical consciousness that is equal to its challenges,” the pope said.
In April, Peter Thiel, a tech billionaire who co-founded PayPal and founded Palantir, moved his family to Buenos Aires. Last year, Thiel argued that AI and tech regulation would hasten the coming of the antichrist. Since moving to Buenos Aires, he’s held closed-door meetings with Milei and his top advisors. Milei said in 2024 that the two’s libertarian ideas and position as “anarchocapitalists” drew them together.
But despite these policy tensions, Milei presented his government and the church as a united front against a world “stubbornly trying to overshadow” a “natural law that calls us to do good and avoid evil.”
“We know that this defense is not passive, but instead that it requires our active commitment to honor the faith and live a dignified and virtuous life,” he said. “As a government, we will continue to work to orient each one of our decisions in conformity to a moral compass that has guided us and that the church throughout so much time has guarded.”
Just under four in ten Argentines approved of Milei (38.5%), according to a September poll by AtlasIntel, while Leo’s approval rating among Argentines was nearly seven in ten (68.5%), according to a September poll by Zuban Córdoba.
Morello told RNS that it was “unavoidable” that Leo’s visit would be seen as a criticism of austerity. But, he cautioned, “ I don’t think the pope is trying to poke on that or saying like, ‘I’m going to do this because I want to piss (off) the president.’”