Pope Leo XIV landed in Buenos Aires at 4:33 p.m. on Sunday, the first pope to visit Argentina in 39 years, and was received at the foot of the plane by President Milei.
The pope arrived from Uruguay at Aeroparque Jorge Newbery, Buenos Aires’ domestic and regional airport, on an Aerolíneas Argentinas Boeing 737. His four days in Argentina are part of his first tour of Latin America as pope, which goes on to Peru. The last pope to visit was John Paul II in April 1987. Leo’s predecessor, Francis, was Argentine but never returned home in his 12 years as pope. The government has also extended airspace rules to let the military shoot down aircraft declared hostile over Buenos Aires and Córdoba during the visit.
All times are Buenos Aires time. The itinerary the Vatican released in September has Leo at the monument to General José de San Martín, the independence hero, in Plaza San Martín at 5 p.m. for a flower offering. At 5:20 p.m. it has a welcome ceremony at the Casa Rosada, the presidential palace, and at 5:50 p.m. a visit to Milei, who is to give the pope a silver medallion and a holy-water sprinkler engraved with the Virgin of Luján, Argentina’s patron saint.
At 6:30 p.m. the pope meets national authorities, civil-society leaders and diplomats at the Palacio Libertad, the former Kirchner Cultural Centre. His message in Argentina is expected to center on poverty, unemployment and inequality, and on the careful use of artificial intelligence. In Montevideo he spoke of people who are poor, alone and vulnerable.
On Monday, Leo starts at a Catholic charity home in Claypole, in Greater Buenos Aires, and celebrates Mass at 11:30 a.m. at the Monumento de los Españoles, a landmark in the Palermo district. In the afternoon he meets representatives of the world of work at the Catholic University of Argentina, then leaders of other Christian churches and religions, and ends the public programme with Vespers, an evening prayer service, with the country’s bishops at the Metropolitan Cathedral.
On Tuesday he flies to Córdoba, Argentina’s second-largest city, for Mass at the Military Aviation School and a meeting with clergy at the cathedral, then returns for an evening vigil with young people in Palermo. On Wednesday he visits a federal prison complex, celebrates Mass in the plaza in front of the Basilica of Our Lady of Luján, the country’s main pilgrimage site, and leaves for Lima, Peru, at 2 p.m. A government decree made Monday a national holiday, Tuesday a holiday in Buenos Aires city and Córdoba province, and Wednesday a holiday in Buenos Aires province.
