Milei in the Vatican, peace rehearsals with Pope Francis
Argentine President Javier Milei arrives at the Vatican with an entourage of over 30 entrepreneurs for the canonization, on Sunday, of Mama Antula, the country's first saint, and for the audience with Pope Francis scheduled for 9 am on Monday 12 February. Also accompanying the president was Foreign Minister Diana Mondino.
The meeting between Milei and Bergoglio will be a historic one, especially after the terrible offenses which during the election campaign the tenant of the Casa Rosada inflicted on his compatriot, defined among other things as “unpresentable communist”. Offenses to which the Holy See obviously never responded. But so it is: “The Pontiff is capable of forgiving” and “recognizes the importance of institutional relations”, commented yesterday Monsignor Jorge Ignacio Garcia Cuerva, metropolitan archbishop of Buenos Aires. And Bergoglio himself toned down his tone by confirming, in an interview, that “what is said during the electoral campaign falls by itself”.
Although there was no belief in an opening between Argentina and the Holy See, in recent months, the official invitation for Francis for an apostolic visit to the South American country arrived from Buenos Aires. He is a visit that the Pope has wanted for some time and which therefore seems to be increasingly coming true. A journey of “pacification”, which would be very good for Argentina which is going through a context of serious economic and social crisis. “Argentinians want to meet their pastor, they want to listen to him. We need his word, we need his physical presence”, underlined the archbishop of Buenos Aires. “We all want the Pope to return to Argentina.”
In the meantime, however, let's look at the first meeting between Milei and Bergoglio, on Sunday for the canonization mass of Blessed Maria Antonia de San José, better known as Mama Antula. It is customary for there to be a brief greeting with the authorities in the sacristy before the ceremony. Even if the real face to face will be on Monday morning. The news that Milei will be in the Vatican (and at the canonization) in the company of over 30 businessmen has already made people smile inside the Leonine Walls. “It's like going to a basketball game with cleats on,” Vatican sources told an Argentine newspaper. Milei will be accompanied, among others, by Eduardo Eurnekian, Daniel Funes de Rioja and Alejandro Elsztain, son of the owner of IRSA and who approached the president with the Orthodox Jewish organization Chabad Lubavitch. “Don't let the Pope wake up with a cold that day”, the same Vatican sources report.
“The institutional presence of President Milei will be precious because it will help improve relations with the Church, with the episcopal conference”, specified the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Monsignor Jorge Ignacio Garcia Cuerva. “We are talking about a new government that has only been in office for two months, so the relations are cordial, they are institutional relations, so I think they should be and certainly can be strengthened”, he concluded. Given the premises, it cannot be ruled out that after the audience granted to President Milei, Pope Francis could better schedule his return to his homeland.
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