By Deutsche Welle
12 Feb 2024, 10:32 PM EST
Argentine President Javier Milei was received this Monday by his compatriot Pope Francis, in an audience in the Vatican aimed at strengthening the relationship between two ideologically opposed leaders.
The Supreme Pontiff and the president met for an hour and ten minutes in the Apostolic Palace, the day after seeing each other for the first time in the Vatican and exchanging hugs on the occasion of the canonization of Mama Antula (1730-1799), the first Argentine saint.
In a more formal tone, they met in audience to speak at length and try to strengthen their relationship, after the insults that Milei uttered against Francisco in the past.
President Javier Milei and the Secretary General of the Presidency Karina Milei, together with His Holiness Pope Francis.
God bless the Argentine people. pic.twitter.com/46EeQHDZJS
— Office of the President (@OPRArgentina) February 12, 2024
For the moment, the Vatican has not commented on one of the big issues that the event raised, Francis’ possible trip this year to Argentina, a country he has not visited since he was elected head of the Catholic Church in 2013.
As could be seen in a video released by the Holy See, The president gave his compatriot and former archbishop of Buenos Aires some alfajores and some lemon cookies, as well as a postcard from the Argentine Post Office in honor of Mama Antula.
At the same time, Francisco gave Milei his speech for peace this year, which calls for regulating artificial intelligence, and a bronze medallion inspired by the baldachin, the imposing structure of four Solomonic columns that covers the altar of St. Peter’s Basilica.
The father is “the most important Argentine”
The president of Argentina, Javier Milei, said this Saturday (02/10/2024) that he hopes to have a “very fruitful dialogue” with Pope Francis, whom he described as “the most important Argentine in history”, after having openly criticized him during the electoral campaign.
“We are going to have a very fruitful dialogue” with Father Francisco, “like the one we had when we spoke on the phone,” Milei told Miter radio, from Italy.
Milei had described the pope in the campaign as the “representative of evil on Earth,” among other disqualifications, while the pontiff downplayed the far-right accusations, clarifying that “they are things that are said in the electoral campaign,” and in fact It was he who picked up the phone to congratulate him after his presidential election.
Milei declared him this Saturday as “the most important Argentine in history” and that one cannot “lose that perspective.” He added: “I hope his holiness’s health is in good condition for him to come visit the Argentines,” in reference to a possible visit by the pope to his native country, to which he has not returned since his election in 2013, because “it is very important.” moral support in a country with so much roots in Catholicism” and that “cannot be trapped in ideological disputes, especially being a spiritual leader.”
The first official act of Milei’s trip will be the canonization of the first Argentine saint, the laywoman María Antonia de San José Paz y Figueroa, known as Mama Antula, in a mass in the Vatican’s Saint Peter’s Basilica and where she will have a greeting with Francisco.
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