Pope Leo XIV arrives in Argentina on Sunday 8 November for a four-day visit, the middle leg of his first trip to Latin America as pope. He is due to land at Aeroparque Jorge Newbery in Buenos Aires at 4.30pm, after celebrating Mass in Florida, Uruguay, in the morning and a farewell ceremony at Carrasco International Airport.

The visit is the first by a pope to Argentina in nearly four decades, and the first to the homeland of his predecessor, Pope Francis, who never returned during his pontificate. Leo, the US-born pope who served about two decades as a missionary and bishop in Peru, began the 12-day tour in Uruguay on 6 November and will end it in Peru on 17 November. He is travelling weeks after surgery to remove part of his right lung, after a growth was found to be cancer, and Vatican doctors cleared him for the trip.

A divided country and a warm welcome

President Javier Milei, who won election in 2023 despite having criticised Francis, is expected to greet the pope on the tarmac, and the government has declared a national holiday for the day of his arrival. Archbishop Jorge Garcia Cuerva of Buenos Aires has described Argentina as "a wounded Argentina, a divided Argentina", marked by poverty and political fracture, and hopes the visit will foster unity.

Four days of Masses and meetings

The pope will visit the General Jose de San Martin Memorial and meet Milei at the Casa Rosada. On 9 November he will visit the Pequeno Cottolengo in Claypole, a centre for people with disabilities, and celebrate Mass in Palermo for a crowd organisers expect to exceed 1.5 million.

[Source: ncronline.org](https://www.ncronline.org/vatican/pope-leos-visit-buenos-aires-revives-legacy-argentine-born-francis) | [Source: particle.news](https://particle.news/story/pope-len-xiv-set-to-arrive-in-argentina-for-fourday-state-and-pastoral-visit)