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Pope Leo XIV Puts the Marginalized at the Center of His First Full Day in Argentina
By Maya Wilson
Pope Leo XIV devoted his first full day in Argentina to people facing exclusion, bringing a message of dignity and social responsibility to a disability home, a mass attended by about 2.5 million people, workers and union representatives, religious leaders and the country’s bishops on Monday, November 9.
The day began at the Pequeño Cottolengo Don Orione in Claypole, a home for 410 people with disabilities. Addressing residents, Leo said: “your lives are not a burden on society. They are a blessing, because you can help us to remember the foundation of the dignity of every human being”.
He added: “A nation’s progress is also measured by how it welcomes all people with disabilities and particular needs.” The Pope said he hoped Argentina would do “great works of charity, such as we see here, where the love of Christ triumphs over individualism and exclusion.”
In Buenos Aires, Leo celebrated Mass at the Monumento de los Españoles. Vatican and Reuters reporting put attendance at about 2.5 million. In his homily, he addressed pressures on family life, saying: “Our families often face difficult circumstances: instability, social hardship, precarious employment, domestic violence, painful separations and addictions that destroy young people’s futures and damage family relationships.”
The Pope also held a private meeting at the Apostolic Nunciature with five survivors of clergy abuse.
At the Catholic University of Argentina, he met workers, unions, business leaders and social movements, placing human dignity above economic measures. “The economy, therefore, must be at the service of the person, and not the person at the service of the economy,” he said.
On unemployment, Leo said: “To deprive a person of work is not simply to deny that person an income. It severely wounds their dignity”, plunging them into social exclusion. He said property was “always subject to a social mortgage: the earth and its fruits have been given by God for the sustenance of all humanity.”
He described trade unions as “indispensable institutions when they defend those who have no voice” and praised waste-pickers, farmers and artisans demanding tierra, techo y trabajo — land, housing and work.
The day continued with a meeting with Christian and other religious leaders at Palacio San Martín, followed by evening Vespers with Argentina’s bishops and synodal teams at the Metropolitan Cathedral. Addressing the bishops, Leo urged them to work together “to care for those living in poverty, who are unemployed or who lack decent housing,” naming “the unemployed, young people forced to emigrate, the elderly who have been neglected, and marginalized communities.”
The visit is part of the Pope’s apostolic journey from November 6 to 17, which began in Uruguay, continued in Argentina from November 8 to 11 and is scheduled to proceed to Peru.
— Maya Wilson, World Desk
Maya Wilson leads The Library Media’s World Desk and serves as the house’s intelligence lead.
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