Pope Leo XIV used his general audience in St. Peter's Square on Wednesday to ask for prayers ahead of a trip that will take him to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru, according to Clarin.com. Speaking in Spanish to Spanish-speaking pilgrims, the pontiff said he was placing the coming journey in their hands and hoped it would deepen faith, restore hope and stir what he called the fire of charity, the outlet reported. The remarks drew applause.
The visit is a homecoming of sorts: the Pope is due in Argentina, the country of his birth, and the schedule has set off preparations across the country, from transport agencies to provincial governments.
Why it matters
For Argentina, the trip is freighted with symbolism. Clarin.com reports that the Pope's presence in the western part of Greater Buenos Aires will mark the first time in 44 years that a pontiff has moved through that region. The Buenos Aires province governor, Axel Kicillof, described the visit at a press conference in Lujan as a historic event rather than an ordinary trip, calling it a moment of spiritual as well as human and social weight, according to the outlet.
Kicillof also used the occasion to cast the Pope as a moral counterweight to individualism, saying Leo XIV reminds society not to grow used to injustice or accept cruelty as normal, and that no community can be built on indifference toward the weakest, Clarin.com reported.
Transport plans and volunteer logistics
Public agencies are scaling up for the crowds. The national government has given the Argentine Episcopal Conference 24,000 special SUBE transit cards for designated volunteers, Clarin.com reports, allowing free travel on buses, trains and the subway between Friday, November 6 and Friday, November 13. Officials are also organizing buses to carry roughly 4,000 volunteers from the City of Buenos Aires to Lujan on Monday, November 9 and Tuesday, November 10, ahead of a Mass on the Wednesday, with transport business associations helping with logistics, according to the outlet.
Trenes Argentinos, the state rail operator, said it would run an extraordinary schedule with overnight services and extra capacity for the papal visit, according to Argentina.gob.ar. In Salta, the municipality has planned a gathering at Plaza España to mark the Pope's arrival in the country, the city government announced.
Clarin.com also reports that the stage near the Monument to the Spanish is nearly finished and that traffic closures and restrictions are multiplying in Palermo around the site as the start of the visit approaches.
A Pope who has spoken about artificial intelligence
The visit lands in the middle of a live debate in Argentina about artificial intelligence. Clarin.com notes that Leo XIV is among the world leaders who have warned about the dehumanizing risks of AI, and that President Javier Milei has taken a sharply different line, promoting automated companies without human workers and positioning the country as a friendly destination for the technology.
In May, the Pope published his first encyclical, "Magnifica humanitas," which addresses Catholic social teaching in the age of AI. According to Clarin.com, the document does not condemn the technology but warns that it can strip human life of its humanity. At its presentation, the Pope said AI already shapes many areas of daily life and the decisions that structure how people live together, and that it is drastically changing the way war is waged, the outlet reported.
Milei has pushed back on warnings he says are meant to frighten people about AI, arguing the technology calls for prudence rather than fear or state control, and told the UN General Assembly in September that Argentina would stand at the forefront of freedom on the question, according to Clarin.com.
A blessing for a former detainee, and a Chilean visitor
Among those hoping to meet the Pope in person is Nahuel Gallo, an Argentine gendarme held for 448 days in Venezuela under Nicolas Maduro's government. Clarin.com reports that Gallo said on social media that Leo XIV sent him an apostolic blessing, and that he wrote to the Pope asking for the chance to greet him during the Argentina stop and to thank him directly. He repeated the request in comments on posts by the Pope and by Vatican News, the outlet reported.
On Wednesday, the Pope also received Chile's president, José Antonio Kast, for a 40-minute audience, Kast's first visit to the Vatican since taking office in March and coming two days before the South American tour begins, according to Clarin.com. Kast said afterward that the Pope expressed affection for Chile, a country he knows well from his time as superior of the Augustinians, and recalled that the then-Father Robert Prevost traveled there in 2002 and 2003, visiting Santiago, Concepcion, San Pedro de la Paz and San Fernando, the outlet reported.
The national government has said it will run a special operation to ease public transport travel on nationally regulated services during the visit, Clarin.com reports.
The Pope is expected to arrive in Argentina on Sunday, with the Lujan Mass set for the following Wednesday. Watch for final details of his route through the southern suburbs and the capital, and for how the crowds and transport hold up once the visit is under way.
