Pope Leo XIV drew about 650,000 people to an outdoor Mass in Córdoba, Argentina, on Tuesday, 10 November 2026, in the second huge turnout of his 12-day South America tour. The Vatican estimated the crowd at 650,000, while local authorities put attendance at between 650,000 and 800,000 for the open-air liturgy on the grounds of the Military Aviation School.

The Mass came a day after an estimated 2.5 million people attended the pope's first Mass in Argentina in Buenos Aires on Monday, the largest turnout for any of his foreign Masses so far. Pilgrims travelled from across the country for the Córdoba event, pressing against barriers at the airfield as Leo arrived in an open-air popemobile, according to Reuters.

A message of holiness and care

In his homily, Leo urged Argentines to follow the example of their country's best-known saints, calling Córdoba a "land of saints" and asking the faithful to help build a more fraternal and caring nation. The liturgy took place on the esplanade of the Argentine Aircraft Factory, a plant run by the air force for much of the 20th century, and after Mass the pope greeted 20 people chosen by Córdoba's archbishop, Cardinal Ángel Rossi, to represent the city's poor and marginalised.

Leo, 71, is making one of the most intense foreign trips of a Catholic leader in decades, less than a month after undergoing surgery for lung cancer. He travelled some 1,300 kilometres back and forth from Buenos Aires on Tuesday for two events in Córdoba, a city in the foothills of the Sierras Chicas with strong Catholic history and long ties to the Jesuit order.

The Argentina leg so far

Leo is the first pope to visit majority-Catholic Argentina since 1987, and the Argentina leg is the most politically delicate stop on his three-nation tour, which began in Uruguay and ends in Peru on 17 November. On Sunday, in his first public speech in Argentina, he told President Javier Milei and other officials that "the economy must serve the person, not the person the economy," a message widely read as a challenge to Milei's austerity programme, which the Church has criticised for cutting social services.

On Monday, 9 November, Leo visited a residential home for people with disabilities in Claypole, south of Buenos Aires, which Argentina's bishops have said is imperilled by delays and shortfalls in state funding under the austerity drive. The home, the Little Cottolengo Don Orione, houses 410 adults with varying degrees of disability. Leo praised the dignity and belonging found in such places, though he did not mention the funding issue directly.

On Wednesday, his last day in Argentina, Leo will celebrate a final Mass in Luján and visit inmates at the Devoto Prison in Buenos Aires before travelling to Peru, where he spent two decades as a missionary priest and later a bishop. Peru has declared Wednesday afternoon a non-working period in Lima and Callao to ease movement during his arrival, according to Catholic News.

Frequently asked questions

How many people attended the Córdoba Mass? The Vatican estimated 650,000 people at Tuesday's outdoor Mass in Córdoba; local authorities estimated between 650,000 and 800,000.

How does that compare with Buenos Aires? About 2.5 million people attended Monday's Mass in Buenos Aires, the largest crowd at any of Pope Leo's foreign Masses so far.

Where does the pope go next? After a final Mass in Luján and a prison visit in Buenos Aires on Wednesday, he travels to Peru, the last leg of his 12-day South America tour, which runs to 17 November.