With the Argentina, your native country, Francisco had a close, attentive relationship, but always avoiding interfering with daily politics. He received all the presidents who lived with his papacy. So much Cristina Kirchner, Mauricio Macri, Alberto Fernández and even Javier Mileiwho came to qualify him as the “evil on earth”, had his photo with him.
He Pope Francis He spoke on more than one occasion about his visit to Argentina. In a biographical book published a few years ago, he revealed that his return to the country “was planned in December 2017”. “I want to go to Argentina”, He expressed then.
It was, perhaps, his main pending account. The visit to the country She was always postponed waiting for a more calm political time that never arrived.
Meeting with Cristina Kirchner and political turn
The then cardinal Jorge Bergoglio He was chosen as Pope Francis on March 13, 2013, at 76, during the second presidency of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. It is the one that has the record of meetings as a president, since he has four hearings with the Supreme Pontiff.
The appointment of Francisco It occurred in the midst of a government relationship, at that time, with the Church. This changed the plans. At first, from the ruling party there was suspicion. But for the president there was no hesitation. From that moment, he changed his personal gaze on the figure of the Franciscoas well as all Kirchnerism.
Tense audience with Mauricio Macri
The former president Mauricio Macri was twice with the Pope Francis. The first protocol meeting was in January 2018, where there was a distant relationship.
That first crossing (as president and potato) He was tense and left Macri poorly stopped. Francisco marked the court and made several criticisms for his political movements.
The second visit in that year, had the presence of Antonia (daughter of Macri and Juliana Awada)something that helped break the coldness of the relationship.
Pope Francis and Mauricio Macri.
Pope Francis and Mauricio Macri.
Meetings with Alberto Fernández
On January 31, 2020, the then president Alberto Fernández He was received in the Vatican by Pope Francis. The meeting, which lasted 44 minutes, was the first official nature between the two since the politician of the politician in 2019.
At that meeting, Fernández He had exclaimed: “Holy Father, what a pleasure to see him!” After the meeting, within the framework of the protocol of gifts, Pope Francis asked President Alberto Fernández to “be messengers of La Paz”when delivering a medallion -shaped sculpture that symbolizes peace and that contains an olive tree, a vine and a dove, as explained by the pontiff to the president.
Pope Francis Alberto Fernandez.jpg
As he told at a press conference he offered in Rome, the meeting with Francisco was relaxed: “We laughed a lot, we had many coincidences and I heard their advice. There was no talk of the Pope’s visit to Argentina; I don’t want him to feel pressed. Argentina is his house and there are always the open doors,”he commented.
The following year, in May and Post Pandemia, Fernández maintained a private audience with Pope Francis in the city of the Vatican, in which the “very good climate” between them was highlighted.
The meeting was marked by issues such as Coronavirus pandemic, the coincidences of the need for liberalization of vaccine patents and the “silent help” of the Argentine pontiff to the renegotiation of the debt.
Finally, the ex -president had planned to meet the Pontiff in November 2023, but decided to cancel it to continue with the presidential transition within the framework of the change of Government which was protagonist of Javier Milei.
His encounter with Javier Milei and the possibility of a visit to Argentina
President Javier Milei met in February 2024 at the Vatican with Pope Francis in what was the first and only private meeting between the two after the greetings that were exchanged in the canonization of the brand new Argentine Santa Mama Antula and, after which the president presented in the Secretary of State of the Holy See his plan “to face the economic crisis” of Argentina.
“I didn’t have me in that task, but if you ask me, I do it,” Milei had told the Pope, Reference to a previous conversation that did not transcend, when entering the library of the second floor of the Apostolic Palace, where it was until 10 for a private meeting. “Sentate,” Francisco then invited him to accommodate on the desk in which they were face to face.
Milei Pope Francis
Reuters
One of the issues on the agenda, as the president had advanced, was the invitation to Jorge Mario Bergoglio To visit Argentina for the first time since it was enthroned in March 2013, a possibility that the Pope considers “a hypothesis” for the second half of the year.
Later that year, Milei revealed that at that time he spoke with Francisco and sends him data about the social reality and economic of the country. “We always talk about situations of vulnerability, receives a report from Human capital With what we are doing to be aware and do not get distorted information. They are deep, complex issues and has the greatness of putting a joke to relax, ”he added.
Source: Ambito
