Vatican Advance Team in Buenos Aires to Prepare Pope Leo XIV Argentina Visit

POPE LEO XIV ARGENTINA · NOVEMBER VISIT

The countdown to the Pope Leo XIV Argentina visit has begun in earnest. A Vatican advance team arrived in Buenos Aires on Sunday evening to walk the ground where, in ten weeks, the first American pope will make the first papal visit to the country in 39 years — a trip the Milei government has declared a matter of national interest and the Church hopes will draw the largest crowds in its recent history.

What the Vatican advance team is doing in Buenos Aires

The delegation touched down at 6:23 p.m. on Sunday and started a packed agenda on Monday morning. At its head is Msgr. José Nahúm Jairo Salas Castañeda, the Vatican official who coordinates all Apostolic Journeys — the man who turns a papal wish to travel into an hour-by-hour program. On arrival, the envoys were welcomed by Foreign Ministry officials and representatives of the Apostolic Nunciature, the pope’s embassy in Buenos Aires.

The working plan, according to Argentine media following the visit, starts with sessions with the local Church and the national authorities coordinating the trip, including meetings at the Palacio San Martín, the ceremonial seat of the Foreign Ministry, and with the Argentine Episcopal Conference. Then come the site inspections: the delegation is touring points of the City of Buenos Aires to assess where Leo XIV could move and where he might meet the faithful, before traveling on to Córdoba for talks with Church and provincial authorities.

Nothing is decorative about these trips. The advance team evaluates security perimeters, evacuation procedures and the exact routes the popemobile would take. Its findings will decide the final itinerary, which the Vatican and the Argentine government expect to close in the coming weeks. A second technical team is due in early September to refine the security operation.

The Pope Leo XIV Argentina itinerary taking shape

The Vatican confirmed on 5 August that Leo XIV will tour Uruguay, Argentina and Peru from 6 to 17 November, a trip The Rio Times reported when it was announced. The Argentine leg runs from 8 to 11 November and concentrates on three jurisdictions: the City of Buenos Aires, the province of Buenos Aires and Córdoba.

The preliminary program points to mass events around the Monumento a los Españoles in Palermo, a visit to the Basilica of Our Lady of Luján — the shrine of Argentina’s patroness and the country’s most important pilgrimage site — and a day of activities in Córdoba, the historic Jesuit heartland. The advance team is also weighing stops at social-assistance institutions and places of strong religious and social symbolism, a signature of this pontificate.

From Buenos Aires the pope flies on to Peru, the country where he served as bishop of Chiclayo and whose citizenship he holds. The Peruvian leg, from 11 to 17 November, includes Lima, Chiclayo, Cusco and Pucallpa, and Lima has already declared the visit a national priority. For Argentines, the emotional charge runs the other way: Leo XIV is the first pope since their own Francis — and unlike Francis, he is coming home early in his pontificate.

Where the big mass could happen

The biggest open question is the venue for the main gathering with the faithful, expected to draw hundreds of thousands. River Plate has offered its Monumental stadium, the largest in South America with room for more than 80,000. But organizers fear even that could fall short, and two open-air alternatives are on the table: Avenida 9 de Julio, the vast boulevard that cuts through downtown, and the grounds around the Monumento a los Españoles on Avenida del Libertador.

Msgr. Marcelo Colombo, president of the Argentine Episcopal Conference, has said no site is ruled out and that the priority is simple: a space that lets “the greatest possible number of people” take part. The final call will depend on the advance team’s assessment of logistics, security and evacuation capacity — which is why this week’s inspections matter more than any protocol meeting.

The politics around the Pope Leo XIV Argentina visit

President Javier Milei’s government has moved fast to frame the trip as a state event. Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno signed a decree declaring the visit of “national interest”, and the organizational command sits with the president’s sister and general secretary, Karina Milei, who leads an interministerial group covering logistics, budget, communications and transport. Security falls to Minister Alejandra Monteoliva under a unified command that must coordinate with three governments at once: Jorge Macri’s City of Buenos Aires, Axel Kicillof’s Buenos Aires province and Córdoba.

Officially, the visit is strictly pastoral. Milei will nonetheless receive an institutional meeting with the pope, a protocol gesture both sides need. The two already know each other: in June 2025, weeks after Leo XIV’s election, Milei was received at the Vatican, a thaw after a campaign in which he had harshly attacked Francis.

The Church, for its part, arrives at the visit in an assertive mood. Days before the advance team landed, Msgr. Colombo publicly warned the government not to take a “superficial view” of record household debt, with family bank delinquency at 12.8 percent in June and 5.91 million Argentines behind on payments. The message was clear: the pope will find a country where the Church intends to speak about the social cost of the adjustment.

History frames everything. The last pope to set foot in Argentina was John Paul II, in April 1987, when a million people filled Avenida 9 de Julio. Francis, the first Argentine pope, never returned to his homeland in twelve years of pontificate — an absence that still stings. Leo XIV, a US-born Augustinian with a Peruvian passport and a missionary’s resume, now has the chance to close that wound in a single November weekend.

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Sources: Ámbito Financiero; Buenos Aires Herald; Buenos Aires Times; EWTN; Radio Veritas; Vatican News.

This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated newsroom system. How we use AI · Report an error · Editorial responsibility: Matthias Camenzind, Editor-in-Chief