León XIV, Argentina, and a Journey with Political Signals from Francisco's Legacy

Finally, the Pope will visit Argentina. It is not the long-awaited apostolic trip that Francisco was expected to make for 12 years. It will be the task of his successor, León XIV, to satisfy the expectations of the faithful and, why not, of Argentine politicians.

León XIV will undertake a brief visit to the country—less than four days—and in the midst of a larger tour that will first take him to Uruguay and then to Peru, his second homeland, where it will be the longest stop of the pastoral journey.

The order of the countries he will visit is not insignificant. The peculiar inclusion of Uruguay, proudly considered the most secular nation in Latin America, and the conclusion in the land where Robert Prevost carried out most of his missionary and ecclesiastical work. In the middle of Argentina, almost as if it were a circumstantial stop between two destinations, as a way to lighten the weight that undoubtedly will come with arriving at Francisco's house just over a year after his death.

The reasons why the first Argentine pope never returned to the country have been widely debated, and no matter how many arguments were put forth, the final and conclusive answer was always one: politics. In the country of division, neither the cunning nor the delicacy of Francisco would have sufficed to avoid being just another piece in the ideological battle. His words, his gestures, would have been analyzed through the lens of triumph and defeat by both sides equally. The problem with metaphors is their free interpretation.

It is true that León XIV has a character and a worldview of his own. Just as it is not coincidental that he was appointed as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops (a high position in the Roman Curia) during Francisco's papacy. Bergoglio, always a strategist, spent the last years of his management shaping a Vatican close to his vision of the mission that the Catholic Church must undertake. It was a task resisted by conservative sectors and unfinished, but with solid foundations. Hence the choice of his successor. The points of convergence between Prevost and the late Argentine pope are considerably more than the differences.

The conceptual harmony between the two popes is undeniable. The first significant sign of León XIV's intention to visit Argentina picked up Francisco's legacy of his frank discourse against the market economy and inequality. "Those who enjoy material abundance must carefully avoid harming in the slightest the sustenance of the less fortunate, which—though modest—must be considered sacred, precisely because it constitutes the indispensable support of their existence," he urged entrepreneurs through a letter sent to the 31st Annual Conference of the Argentine Industrial Union (UIA) last November.

The Pope, who has dedicated his first year of pontificate to fulfilling many trips planned by Francisco that his fragile health did not allow him to undertake, has also upheld the greatest of the revolutions that Bergoglio imposed in the Vatican. This is, not to hide the political role of the Catholic Church and its messages. And he has done so by confronting none other than the President of the USA, Donald Trump, asserting that he was not afraid and that he would continue to denounce the errors of his government. "I am not afraid of the Trump administration, nor to proclaim loudly the message of the Gospel, which is what I believe I am here for, what the Church is here for," he declared amid the war against Iran.

Another gesture of continuity, with special symbolism for Argentine faithful and on which progress is expected during the pastoral journey in November, is the beatification process of businessman Enrique Shaw, initiated by Francisco and which León XIV has promoted.

Therefore, it is expected that in the massive gatherings in Buenos Aires, Córdoba, and Luján, we will hear Francisco's message in the voice of León XIV. Those criticisms and also invitations that Bergoglio held back will arrive in a less conflictive form at the hands of his successor, with less to lose within the effervescent local politics.

The Argentine Church, one of the most critical voices regarding the current economic situation and the radicalized rhetoric of the Government, has already signaled that, although León XIV will arrive with his imprint, he will have the opportunity to say what Francisco could not. "What will we do with everything the Pope leaves us?" posed as an early challenge Archbishop Jorge García Cuerva.