A person touches an image of Pope Francis at the Virgen de Caacupe chapel, following the death of the pontiff, in Buenos Aires, on April 21.Matias Baglietto/Reuters
Mass was celebrated Monday morning in the Argentine capital for the native son who rose from humble origins as the child of Italian immigrants to lead the Roman Catholic Church.
The celebrant, local archbishop Jorge García Cuerva, remembered Pope Francis – born Jorge Mario Bergoglio – as a “pope for the poor.” He also pleaded for Argentines to make the Pope’s memory a force for unity in a deeply divided country.
“The best tribute we Argentines can pay to Francis is to unite. The best tribute we can pay him is to build bridges, to engage in dialogue, to stop constantly confronting each other,” Cardinal García Cuerva said at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Buenos Aires.
“May Francis go to heaven with the peace of mind that his children will try to live the national unity between us that is still pending.”
Francis, who died Monday at 88, made history as the first Argentine and Latin American pope. It briefly became a point of pride – with Argentines quipping, “He came from the end of the world.”
But Francis was never able to unite the country, despite early enthusiasm after he was elected in 2013 at a time of economic crisis and political divisions. He slipped into “la grieta” – “the crack” fracturing Argentine politics and society into Peronist and anti-Peronist camps. And many Argentines came to see the Pope as a political participant as much as a pastor.
“Pope Francis has been a rather controversial figure in Argentina,” said Fernando Domínguez Sadou, a political science professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina.
“Much of Argentine society, and especially the Argentine political class, was unable or unwilling to shake off the image the Pope projected in domestic politics, while ignoring or forgetting the merits of his pontificate.”
Politicians from all sides tried to claim him as a fellow traveller, while various unofficial spokespersons emerged purportedly speaking for him – forcing the Argentina bishops to state flatly that the Pope speaks for himself. The divisions were further exacerbated with the emergence of President Javier Milei, the anarcho-capitalist who disparaged Francis as a “communist” and campaigned on taking a chainsaw to the state.
Still, Mr. Milei expressed condolences on X, buried among pile of posts and reposts on a surging Argentine peso: “Despite the differences that today seem trivial, to have been able to know him in his kindness and wisdom was a true honour for me.”
Mr. Milei’s ability to badmouth Francis and still win high office showed limits of the Pope’s influence, according to analysts. Priests considered close with Francis – known as curas villeros, who work in the shantytowns of Buenos Aires – celebrated a mass of reparation ahead of the October, 2023 election, after Mr. Milei’s discourtesies. But the event wasn’t popular, according to analysts.
Argentinian President Javier Milei, left, attends a private audience with Pope Francis, in The Vatican, on Feb. 12, 2024. Mr. Milei’s ability to badmouth Francis and still win high office showed limits of the Pope’s influence in Argentina, according to analysts.SIMONE RISOLUTI/VATICAN MEDIA/AFP via Getty Images
“The church was left in a bad place because it made its discourse about the people, the poor, which all became distorted in the elections,” said José María Poirier, publisher of Catholic publication Criterío in Buenos Aires. He added that many in poor areas ultimately voted for Mr. Milei, despite his libertarian agenda being at odds with the pope’s teachings.
Political divisions have remained so deep that Francis never returned to his native country, despite flying over Argentina twice for tours to neighbouring Chile and Paraguay. The late pope never articulated his reasons for not visiting. But his absence bewildered a country fond of celebrating its citizens excelling in the international arena.
“It’s a complicated relationship because, above all, the Pope decided to not return to Argentina,” said Sergio Berensztein, an Argentine pollster and political analyst.
That decision “hurts me the most,” said Silvia Jofre, a public hospital employee, who fondly recalled Francis regularly visiting patients and greeting staff at her workplace while he was archbishop.
Ms. Jofre spoke after a February mass for the then-ailing Francis at well-transited public plaza to symbolize his closeness with the population during his 14 years as archbishop. Parishioners from poor barrios – known as villas – clutched photos of Francis and recalled how he unassumingly visited in communities founded as shanties and avoided by polite society.
But the crowd was small. And politics quickly surfaced.
“We Argentines have not allowed Bergoglio to be Francis,” Cardinal García Cuerva said Monday. “We have always put him in the middle of our sterile discussions, we have put him in our political divides.”
Francis, as the archbishop of Buenos Aires from 1998 to 2013, became famous for austerity. He rode the subway everywhere, never dined out and eschewed any luxuries.
He cut an intensely political course, too. The then-archbishop criticized the former president Nestor Kirchner and his successor and wife, former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, for alleged corruption and management of poverty issues.
Francis also fomented a campaign against perpetual re-election, thwarting Mr. Kirchner’s ambitions. The then-president would call him “leader of the opposition.” (Mr. Kirchner died in 2010.)
Politics emerged immediately after his election as pope. Ms. Fernández de Kirchner didn’t immediately congratulate him. Her partisans in congress refused to interrupt an homage to the late Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez to offer congratulations. State television showed children’s shows rather than switching to Vatican coverage.
The Peronists quickly pivoted, however, blanketing Buenos Aires with posters proclaiming, “Argentine and Peronist.” Ms. Fernández de Kirchner also became friendly with Francis, visiting him five times before she left office in 2015.
For his part, Francis encouraged Argentines to “take care of Cristina,” but the gesture was poorly received in non-Peronist circles. He later appeared with a long face in a 2016 photo with then-president Mauricio Macri – who led an anti-Peronist coalition to power – causing more consternation.
“That drove many people away further and further from Francis as the Pope or the leader of the Catholic Church and to see him has a political figure,” said Fernando Farías, a public radio host in Buenos Aires.
He pointed to Argentina’s 2022 World Cup-winning team, which refused to appear at the presidential palace upon returning, as a counter example of national heroes remaining above politics.
“That’s how they remain a unifying force, an icon that is above everybody. the Pope certainly did not do that,” Mr. Farías said. “What they see first” with Francis “is a political agenda that may be theirs or may be that of their opponents.”