Pope Leo XIV concludes visit to Argentina
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on TimesLIVE
Pope Leo XIV is due to conclude his three-day visit to Argentina on Wednesday with an outdoor Mass at the Shrine of Our Lady of Luján. The stop precedes his trip to Peru, where he is due to meet several former associates, according to TimesLIVE.
Pope Leo XIV concludes his three-day visit to Argentina on Wednesday with an outdoor Mass at the Shrine of Our Lady of Luján, before visiting one of the country’s largest prisons. The Mass is expected to attract millions of pilgrims, according to TimesLIVE.
The pontiff will then travel to Peru, where he is due to land at 5.30pm at Callao air base before going to the presidential palace to address President Keiko Fujimori, elected this year in a very close election marked by allegations of fraud and delays in the counting, TimesLIVE reports. Leo XIV, who criticised the pardon granted to former president Alberto Fujimori in 2017, is also due to spend three days in Chiclayo, where he was bishop from 2015 to 2023.
His stay in Peru is expected to include meetings with former friends and take place against a political backdrop marked by the return to power of the Fujimori dynasty. Jose Luis Guadalupe Pérez, an academic at the University of the Pacific in Peru, believes the pope’s intimate knowledge of the country could lead him to address sensitive issues.
The visit to Argentina comes after Leo XIV began his 12-day South American tour on 6 November and arrived in the country on 9 November for the first papal visit to Argentina since 1987. The pope celebrated a Mass in Córdoba on 10 November attended by 650,000 faithful and met residents of Fiorito and Claypole, where he defended marginalised people. the 12-day South American tour had begun three days earlier.
