Pope Francis had a tense relationship with Argentine Presidents from Kirchner to Milei

From Peronists to Libertarian Javier Milei, Pope Franci had tense connections with presidents in Argentina. The goal of politicization, he eventually distanced from his homeland and died without ever returning to Buenos Aires.

The dispute involving the Catholic leader won new contours when Javier Milei insulted him as an “imbecile” and “representative of evil on earth” during the last presidential election. However, the libertarian was not the only Argentine leader who criticized the Pope, who had sensitive relationships with politics.

Although he got all presidents in the Vatican, Francis died without visiting Argentina as the Pope because he was afraid that his return would be used politically – on the one hand or the other.

The Pope’s tagged relationship with Argentine politics comes from long before Javier Milei. The couple Néstor and Cristina Kirchner considered Francis as “spiritual opposition leader”. The Peronists even accused him of cooperating with the Argentine military dictatorship that delivered priests to the regime-a complaint that was never proven.

After Buenos Aires Archbishop Jorge Bergoglio became Pope Francis in 2013, Cristina Kirchner is advised by Allies to review her position and apologized. “I thought you were something else,” Cristina would have said when he met the Pontiff.

She was greeted by the Pope four times and went after Francis during her visits to Brazil, Paraguay and Cuba. But the political use of the approach from Cristina Kirchner dissatisfied the Pontiff, according to Clear. After that, the relationship would carry again.

With Mauricio Macri, wear and toes began when he was still mayor of Buenos Aires. The Catholic leader had supported the candidate of Bishop Joaquin Piña who managed to block, in the element of the Misiones province, the indefinite re -election of the Peronist Carlos Rovira. And he expected in return that Macri appealed against the decision that paved the way for the same -Sex marriage in Argentina, which did not happen.

During the Presidency of Mauricio Macri, Argentina took another step in progressive reforms: the beginning of the discussions in Congress on the legalization of abortion. Despite the wear with Pope Francis, who met the pressure from the most conservative sectors in the Catholic Church, they maintained the relations at the institutional level.

In the case of Alberto Fernández, the relationship was affected by the legalization of abortion, which ended during his period at Casa Rosada. According to ClearThe Pontiff would also have disturbed Fernández’s strategy, which, like his Vice President Cristina Kirchner, tried to politically explore the Pope’s relationships.

Milei, in turn, attacked the Catholic leader before reaching the chairmanship. After being selected, he participated in the mass of canonization of the breast antulan, the first saint in Argentina, and was received by Pope Francis.

The relationship became satisfactory, but they held deep disagreements on the role of the state. Libertarian Javier Milei promotes a hard financial adjustment, which mainly affects the poorest in Argentina, while Pope Francis devoted himself to defending the vulnerable.

“The state, today more important than ever, is called to play this central role as redistribution and social justice,” the Pope said, one month after getting Milei in the Vatican.

Francisco also criticized the government’s oppression of protests in Argentina. “They showed me the pictures of the oppression, where the police oppressed workers who demanded their rights on the streets as if they were interference. Instead of spending social justice, they spend on the purchase of pepper gas,” he said after a meeting with representatives of social movements.

Although the state and church in Argentina are separated, the bonds have always been very narrow. Until the 1994 constitutional reform, it was Catholic a requirement to adopt the chairmanship. In this context, the Pope was in the midst of polarization and discussions about Peronism.

“I was never connected, militant or sympathization of Peronism. To say this is a lie. My writings on social justice led to saying that I am a peronist. But in the event of a perronistic view of politics, what would it be wrong with it?” He questioned the Pope about the allegations of the critics of bindings with Peronism.

“In Argentina, the Pope was seen with a left profile, and the most liberal right did not like him,” explained the cinema Sergio Rubín, co -writer to the Jesuit (2013) and the pastor (2023).

The dispute ended by running the Pope, who never returned to Buenos Aires. Pope Francis even said that he would like to visit Argentina, but did not want his passage through the country to “be used either to one side or the other”, and expressed the concern for the politicization of his image.

Reactions to the pope’s death

Now, while the world goodbye to Pope Francis, Argentina’s political leaders are leaving the quarrels with the Catholic leader behind.

“Despite the differences that seem small today, it was a real honor for me to have known him in his goodness and wisdom,” wrote Javier Milei as he mourned death. The president appointed seven days of official grief and goes to Rome for the Pope’s Farewell.

In turn, Cristina Kirchner said he was “the face of a more human church, with his feet on earth and a firm look in heaven,” and remembered the first date he had with Pope Francis.

Pontiff’s humanitarian character was also highlighted by Alberto Fernández. “The church should support the removed, the marginalized and the persecuted. The church should embrace those who have been condemned to be minorities or persecuted in their countries. The church should raise their voice against those who gathered wealth and distribute poverty. But the church only succeeded in doing so when franch, Jesuits, was the pope.

Mauricio Macri, who remembered his last meeting with Pope Francis, accompanied by his wife and daughters, said: “I have the picture of that day and also from Francis as a religious man with unsurpassed status, a serious politician and, especially, a good shepherd. His life was marked by the teachings he conveyed with his words, a seriousness.