BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (OSV News) — Pope Leo XIV celebrated Mass with 2.5 million people in the heart of Buenos Aires on Nov. 9, drawing the largest crowd of his pontificate so far.
“Dear families, I encourage you to take a leading role in evangelization! The Church in Argentina needs you,” the pope said in his homily at the iconic Buenos Aires intersection at the “Monumento de los Españoles.”
“This Church is renewed and filled with enthusiasm when families, animated by faith, pray together and live out their ministry of proclaiming the Good News,” he added.
The crowd stretched for miles down several of Buenos Aires’ wide avenues intersecting at the monument with Argentines wearing hats and sunglasses under the bright sun and enthusiastically waving Vatican and Argentine flags as the popemobile passed by.
A moment of ‘tremendous spiritual joy’
Among those in the front of the crowd was Alejandro Ribeiro, a seminarian from the Diocese of Zárate-Campana, who wore a traditional Argentine gaucho beret and sipped on mate in the hours leading up to the papal Mass.
“When I arrived, I shed a few tears, because ever since I felt this vocation, my dream has been to see the pope,” Ribeiro told OSV News.
“It’s hard to go to Rome, but the pope came here,” he added. “I’m really excited— — my heart is really racing.”
Pope Leo’s Nov. 8-11 visit to Argentina, the second leg of his 12-day tour of South America, is the first papal to Argentina in nearly 40 years.
For Sister Zulma Usqueda from Argentina’s Hermanas Misioneras Catequistas de Cristo Rey (Congregation of Missionary Catechist Sisters of Christ the King), the pope’s visit is a moment of “tremendous spiritual joy”.
Her congregation, which was an educational charism, was founded in Argentina by Servant of God Mother Mercedes Pacheco, whose motto was “to do good without making noise.”
“You really can’t explain it in words because it’s so moving — it overwhelms the soul,” Sister Zulma said.
“The pope has come to bring a message to all of us who are here — to those who have lost their faith, to those who don’t believe, and to those who haven’t been able to make it here due to a physical condition,” she told OSV News. “This Holy Father, the Vicar of Christ, calls us together, so that (God’s) embrace will reach everyone.”
Pope Leo offers advice to families on passing on the faith
In his homily, Pope Leo underlined the importance of the Christian family in society.
“The family is the place where faith, human virtues, a culture of work, respect for the elderly, the defense of life and fidelity to one’s word are handed on. Do not give in to those who dismiss the Christian family as outdated. On the contrary, today more than ever, it remains a pillar amid the many insecurities of our time,” the pope said.
“Open the doors of your homes to Christ!” he added. “Speak naturally to your children about Jesus, and remain united to him.”
The pope recommended simple gestures to pass on the faith in the intimacy of one’s home, “a blessing before meals, a prayer before going to bed, forgiveness and mutual listening, grandparents teaching their grandchildren to pray, going to Mass on Sundays, and preparing for a retreat or a pilgrimage.”
“The family is a privileged place for coming to know and encounter Christ,” he added.
Argentine Catholics reflect on Pope Francis
Pope Leo also paid tribute to his predecessor, the late Pope Francis, in a moment that was met by enthusiastic applause from the crowd.
“Our beloved Pope Francis, who was Bishop of this city, expressed with great conviction that ‘the family is called to join in daily prayer, to read the word of God and to share in Eucharistic communion, and thus to grow in love and become ever more fully a temple in which the Spirit dwells’,” Pope Leo said, quoting Pope Francis’ post-synodal apostolic exhortation “Amoris Laetitia.”
A native son of Buenos Aires, Pope Francis never returned to his homeland after his election as pope in 2013.
Catholics in the crowd acknowledged they had been waiting for their former bishop of Buenos Aires, Pope Francis, to visit, but said they were no less excited to be in the presence of his successor.
“It is sad, but I think Pope Leo XIV makes up for it all. Pope Francis is in heaven,” Iris Callupe told OSV News.
Ribeiro said that while Pope Francis never visited Argentina, he believes the late pope “had each of us in his heart.”
“We’ve always awaited Pope Francis with the same excitement we feel now for Pope Leo,” Sister Zulma said. “God knows. He had a better plan.”
“Pope Francis has already been here; we experienced it, we shared it –not as pope, but as archbishop …Today Pope Leo brings us a message — perhaps the one Argentina needs right now,” she added.
Mass on the feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica
Pope Leo noted that the Mass was offered for the feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica, saying the feast is a “sign of God the Father’s saving presence in his Church.”
“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,” he said. “Amid all these hardships and crises, God’s word shines out as a source of hope: God is in our midst; we need not be afraid.”
Pope Leo entrusted all the families in the crowd to the Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Luján, and to her spouse, Saint Joseph, at the end of his homily, which was met with cheers of “Viva el papa!”
Morning visit to ‘Little Cottolengo’
The pope began the day with a visit to a disability care home in Buenos Aires, the Don Orione “Little Cottolengo” in Claypole, known as Pequeño Cottolengo Argentino Don Orione, south of Buenos Aires.
Pope Leo listened to the testimonies of people with disabilities, including a moving story of Marta Torres, wearing grey braids on her head. Born with cerebral palsy, she can’t walk nor see.
“My mother abandoned me the day before my birthday; she left home and never returned. … My father and my siblings took care of me from a very young age,” she said.
Over the years, facing “many hardships, including hospitalizations, surgeries, and numerous treatments,” she searched for a home, and she found one in “Little Cottolengo.”
“For me, the Cottolengo has been a beacon of light that illuminated my life. It was not just a place to live, but a place where I was welcomed, sheltered, and loved,” Torres said.
Over time, she wrote a book, as she wanted her story “to be known and heard because I wish to do good.” Before handing her book to Pope Leo, she said “I offer this as an act of thanksgiving to God for having bestowed so many things upon me.”
The other woman who also gave her testimony — Norma Donato — exchanged the traditional papal skullcap, or zucchetto, with Pope Leo, to cheerful applause.
While visiting the charitable center, the pope also met privately with people suffering from addictions.
Argentina’s President Javier Milei, who met with Pope Leo upon his arrival in Buenos Aires, has defended extensive audits of the disability pension system as necessary after serious irregularities were uncovered. However, the government’s austerity measures, including cuts to disability programs and as well as other social services and government programs — along with measures that have eroded retirees’ purchasing power amid inflation — affected people with disabilities and their families.
“They’ve taken away so many things from us, many benefits, many therapies,” Clarisa Islas, whose two children attend “Little Cottolengo,” told OSV News before the papal trip.
“We are juggling to ensure our children don’t lose their rights or the visibility they have achieved,” the mother, whose two children have cerebral palsy and autism, said.
In his speech at “Little Cottolengo,” Pope Leo said, “A nation’s progress is also measured by how it welcomes all people with disabilities and particular needs.”
“In this special moment, I would like to share with you all my hope for this country: that Argentina may be capable of performing great works of charity, such as we see here, where the love of Christ triumphs over individualism and exclusion.”
In the afternoon, Pope Leo will meet with members of social movements at the Catholic University of Argentina before meeting with leaders of different religions. In the evening, the pope will celebrate vespers with bishops and Argentinian synodal teams at the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity.
Courtney Mares is Vatican editor for OSV News. Follow her on X @catholicourtney. Paulina Guzik, international editor for OSV News, contributed to this report.
