Papa attracts a million young people to watch in Argentina

Cerca of 1 million young people participated in a night vigil in the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires, with Pope Leo XIV, who celebrated a homily for 650,000 people in the city of Córdoba, in the center of the South American country.

On Tuesday night, Leo presided over a great vigil of young people at the Monumento de los Españoles, at a crossroads of great avenues of Buenos Aires, which filled for the event. It was at the same place that, on Monday, Leo gathered 2.5 million people for his main mass in Buenos Aires — a record in his pontificate, which is still in the early years.

The site of the liturgical celebration in Córdoba was the ground of the Argentine Aircraft Factory — an installation managed by the Air Force during much of the 20th century, where the attack planes that the military first used were manufactured in late 1975 to attack left-wing guerrillas.

This counterinsurrection campaign was a prelude to state terror triggered during the military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983, a period in which, according to estimates from human rights groups, some 30,000 people were killed or disappeared.

After Mass, the Pope met in private with 20 people chosen by the Archbishop. Among them was Alba Camargo, whose father, stepmother, aunt and uncle disappeared during the Argentine military dictatorship (1976–1983).

Camargo told the Pope that he was there on behalf of family members who are still looking for the remains of victims in “La Perla” — an old clandestine detention center on the outskirts of Córdoba — and handed him a folder containing photos of the excavations and the names of the persons identified so far.

“ He shook his head, as if he already knew everything; he looked me deeply in the eye, held my hand and blessed the Franciscan crosses that I had taken him”, he told the Associated Press news agency.

Many other members of the group — including a rural worker, a community kitchen organizer and a human trafficking survivor — were so thrilled that they could barely speak, she said. “It was an incredibly strong thing to feel so human, listening to us like that, just six inches away.”

At the age of 71, Leo XIV is making an ambitious 12-day trip to Latin America, passing through Uruguay and Argentina (until Wednesday) and then through Peru – his first trip from the surgery to which he was submitted four weeks ago.

Historically, the health of the Popes has been a theme of sensitive communication, although it has gradually become more open, over time.

In 2023, his predecessor Benedict XVI, the penultimate before him, renounced his pontificate, surprising everyone by claiming the decline of his physical and mental forces.

Also on Tuesday, on the outskirts of Córdoba, Leo XIV invited the congregation to “holiness”, inspired by Argentine saints dedicated to “building a fraternal and supportive homeland”, a message that certainly finds resonance in a society prone to social tensions and political polarization.

On the third day of his visit to Argentina, Leo XIV asked the Catholic Church and those representing her to continue to “make noise”, resuming a famous exhortation made by his predecessor, Francisco, to the young people a few years ago.

“Dream of a Church that continues to make noise, as your compatriot Francis asked!”, said the Pope in Córdoba, speaking to bishops, priests, seminarians and local religious.

He also invited them to use technology and to be “creative” in their pastoral mission.

“ Today, the idea of using technology to continue witnessing is wonderful: be creative and find new ways to continue preaching”, said Leo XIV.