The president of Argentina, Javier Milei, met with Pope Francis this Monday morning (12), at the Vatican. The meeting took place from 9 am to 10 am local time (5 am to 6 am Brasília time), and the president presented the pontiff with alfajores of dulce de leche and lemon cookies.
Milei also gave Pope Francis a copy of the handwritten letter from Chancellor José María Gutiérrez to Juan Bautista Alberdi, dated 1854, and a painting with the image of the commemorative postcard of the first Argentine saint, Mama Antula, canonized this Sunday.
The pontiff delivered to the Argentine president his message of peace for this year, some of his writings and a bronze medallion with a cross and a dove, which is inspired by the baldachin of St. Peter's Basilica made by Gian Lorenzo Bernini “and which symbolizes the harmony between the sacred and the divine, uniting heaven and earth”. These gifts are usually given to everyone other than the pope.
On the way to the meeting location, Milei stopped in front of the Argentine embassy to take a photo with compatriots and participated in a meeting with the Vatican Secretary of State, Pietro Parolin.
Afterwards, he was received by the head of the Prefecture of the Pontifical House, Leonardo Sapienza, and taken on a walk through the decorated corridors until he reached the Second Loggia, where the library of the pontifical apartment is located, where audiences are held.
The president was accompanied by his sister and general secretary of the Presidency, Karina Milei; his Minister of Foreign Affairs, Diana Mondino; the head of the Interior, Guillermo Francos; Human Capital, Sandra Pettovello; the Secretary of Culture, Francisco Sánchez, and the ambassador to Israel, Rabbi Axel Wahnish.
Milei attended the canonization mass of the first Argentine saint
On Sunday (11), Javier Milei attended the canonization mass of Blessed María Antonia de Paz y Figueroa, known as Mama Antula. She was beatified in 2016 in Santiago del Estero, Argentina, after the Pope authorized the publication of a miracle of the recovery of health by nun Vanina Rosa, through the intercession of Mama Antula.
Vanina Rosa had suffered a stroke in 1904 and was part of the Daughters of the Divine Savior Society, whose founder and spiritual mother of the congregation was the first saint in Argentina.
After the canonization mass, Pope Francis and the president of Argentina, Javier Milei, greeted and hugged each other. The meeting represents a kind of end to the climate of the election season, in which the now Argentine leader made harsh criticisms of the pontiff.
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