The Argentine President, Javier Milei, the compatriot of Pope Francis, after his death on Monday, celebrating his “indefatigable struggle … to protect the life of conception, promote interreligious dialogue” and youth dissemination.
The Vatican announced Monday that Pope Francis died at age 88 on Monday morning after a final appearance Duration of Easter celebration services the night before. The Pontiff had fought for months with respiratory diseases before his death, spending the week hospitalized in February and March. Pope Francis, born in Argentina as Jorge Bergoglio, was selected as the first Latin American Pope and the first one that represents the Jesuit order in 2013, successful of Pope Benedict XVI.
Pope Francis dedicated much of his legacy to the defense of the dignity of migrants, the awareness of climate change and mediation efforts with some of the most repressive regimes in the world. Before becoming president in 2023, Milei, a libertarian economist, publicly belittled Pope Francis repeatedly, accusing him of representing “evil” and legislates for “social justice.” He visited the Vatican and with Pope Francis for what both parties described as a “friendly” and warm meeting, hugging and laughing in the photos.
Milei mentioned a letter from his disagreements with the Pope in his message on Monday, describing them as “minors” and honoring his legacy.
“With a deep pain, I discover on this sad day that Pope Francis, Jorge Bergoglio, died today and now rests in peace,” Milei said in a message posted on social networks. “Despite our differences that are minor today, being able to know him in his grace and wisdom was a true honor for me.”
“As president, as Argentine and, fundamental, as a man of faith, I say goodbye to the Holy Father and accompany all those who find our findings today with this sad news.”
Milei, a Catholic who has publicly declared his intention to become Judaism after the end of his presidency, declared a period of seven -day national mourning on Monday. The presidential office also published a separate statement in honor of Pope Francis.
“The Argentine Republic, a country with a long Catholic tradition and the land of Pope Francis, deeply regrets the departure of his holiness and sends his condolences to the Bergoglio family,” reads the statement. “President Javier Milei highlights Francis’s indefatigable fight to protect the life of conception, to promote interreligious dialogue and bring virtuous and spiritual life to the youngest.”
Milei was once the most visceral of the Pope’s critics in his country of origin.
“Envy was a capital sin, it would be necessary to inform the fool that is in Rome [Pope Francis] And defends social justice to know that it is theft and that it goes against the commandments, “Milei complains in a local news program in 2020”, that envy, which is the basis of social justice, is a capital sin and an aberration. “
“I am going to say it to the front, the Pope is the representative of the Earth’s evil that occupies the throne of the house of God,” he continued. “Did you know that the Pope promotes communism with all the disasters that was based and that goes against the Holy Scriptures?”
Milei argued that Pope Francis “promotes poverty and a regime of misery.”
Milei’s comments took more than 20 Argentine priests to organize a “mass of atonement” three years later, when Milei emerged as a presidential favorite in the elections of that year. Milei won that choice and Pope Francis sent an invitation to the Vatican shortly after his inauguration.
The two with February 2024. In the public part of his meeting, the Pope joked Milei about his hair and both laughed and hugged. Both parties described their conversation as “cordial” and the atmosphere as friendly.
Duration of his exchange, Milei gave Pope Francis a copy of a letter written by hand of the late Foreign Minister José María Gutiérrez to the late Argentine diplomat Juan Bautista Alberdi dated 1854 and some caramel cookiesA traditional Argentine sandwich cookie. The Pope gave Milei a bronze medallion inspired by the Baldachin of San Pedro, volumes of papal documents and a copy of this year’s message for peace.
“One of the things that I have realized is that the Pope is the most important Argentine person throughout Argentina, he is the leader of Catholics in the world,” Milei said in an interview after the visit, announcing that he had “reconsidered” reconsidered a ‘reconsidered and sponsor.
The archbishop of Buenos Aires Jorge Ignacio García Cuererva presided over a regular mass on Monday morning that provided the first opportunity to pray for the Pope’s soul.
“We pray this Eucharist especially for the eternal rest of the beloved Pope Francis,” the Archbishop told the congregants. “The Pope of the poor, the marginalized, of those whom no one loves or, in any case, many exclude, he has left.”
The Vatican is in the preparation of the date on which a commemorative ceremony for the Pope and a conclave to choose his successor.