Vatican City: Argentina’s first female saint’s canonization ceremony has marked the face-to-face meeting of Pope Francis and the President Milei.
Javier Milei, President of Argentina has previously stated that the Pope is an “imbecile” who “promotes communism”. After taking office in December, he scaled back his criticism. Mr. Milei attended Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican and met the 87-year-old Pope, embracing him. They will have an intimate audience at the Vatican soon.
Maria Antonia de Paz y Figueroa, better known as Mama Antula, was an 18th-century woman who is considered by some to be Argentina’s first feminist. Mama Antula left her family’s wealth to minister to the poor, and she helped keep the Jesuit movement alive in Argentina after the religious order, including the Pope, was suppressed. The Pope referred her as “a gift to the Argentine people and to the entire Church.”
The meeting between political and religious leaders in Argentina comes amid political turmoil in a country where inflation has soared to 200 percent and 40 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. The economic policies of Mr. Milei, that include a 50 percent devaluation of the Argentine peso and deep austerity measures were met with opposition and led to thousands of Argentines protesting.
The President has also announced plans to slash workers’ rights, abolish rent caps and remove government subsidies for consumer goods. Mr. Milei said that the country needed “economic shock therapy” to tackle its worst economic crisis in decades.
Shortly after his election victory in November, Milei addressed the Pope “Your Holiness” to visit Argentina in 2024. The religious leader from Buenos Aires has not visited his home country since becoming pope in 2013.
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