DistantNews
Support us
🇦🇷 Argentina /Culture & Society

Vatican maps out Pope Leo XIV’s Argentina itinerary, with a focus on social issues

From La Nación · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources New plan
  • A Vatican advance mission reviewed locations for Pope Leo XIV’s planned three-day visit to Argentina, including a care center for people with severe disabilities and Devoto prison.
  • The itinerary is expected to focus on marginalized and vulnerable communities, although visits to villas or popular neighborhoods are not currently planned.
  • Argentina’s government and the Episcopal Conference praised cooperation with the Vatican delegation as the final program remains pending.

Pope Leo XIV’s planned three-day visit to Argentina is taking shape around two places that bring the country’s most vulnerable communities into view: the Pequeño Cottolengo Don Orione in Claypole and Devoto prison.

A Vatican mission spent three days touring the locations with officials from governments of different political affiliations before returning to Rome. The final itinerary is expected from the Holy See in the middle of the month, but the mission’s work has already pointed to a program combining mass celebrations and institutional events with direct contact with people living in marginalization and exclusion.

free residents from having to live alongside a prison that should not be there

· Jorge MacriThe Buenos Aires city government chief used these words when proposing the relocation of Devoto prison.

At the Cottolengo in Claypole, the Pope is expected to see the work of an institution serving about 400 people with severe disabilities. Many were abandoned by their own families. Founded in 1935 by Saint Don Orione, the center operates across a 50-hectare site with about 15 homes, a special-education school, a laundry, sports grounds, a garden, a radio station, a sanctuary and a cemetery.

joy at the presence and work of the delegation of the Secretariat of State of the Holy See

· Argentina’s national government and the Episcopal ConferenceThe joint statement welcomed the Vatican delegation’s work in preparing the papal visit.

Leo XIV is also expected to visit Devoto prison. Buenos Aires city government chief Jorge Macri has proposed moving the penitentiary, saying the change would “free residents from having to live alongside a prison that should not be there,” according to remarks he conveyed to the city legislature in 2025.

No visit to villas or popular neighborhoods is currently planned, which would leave the Cottolengo and Devoto as the Pope’s main encounters with communities facing exclusion. In a joint statement, the national government and the Episcopal Conference expressed their “joy at the presence and work of the delegation of the Secretariat of State of the Holy See.” They described coordination among the state, the Church and provincial and municipal governments as an expression of dialogue, cooperation and fraternity. The developing itinerary also comes after tensions over Argentina’s disability sector, whose crisis the article attributes to reduced state funding.

valuable expression of dialogue, cooperation and fraternity in our homeland

· Argentina’s national government and the Episcopal ConferenceThe joint statement described coordination among state and Church authorities.
About this summary

Originally published by La Nación in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

More Stories

From Our Blog