Pope Leo XIV to Visit Devoto Prison, Former Site of Dictatorship-Era Detention, Before Luján Mass in Buenos Aires, Argentina

Pope Leo XIV will end his visit to Argentina on Wednesday with two stops: a meeting with inmates at a prison with a history linked to the country’s military dictatorship, and a final Mass at Argentina’s national shrine. He is scheduled to return to Peru later the same day.

Both sites have important connections to Leo’s predecessor, Pope Francis. Still, the Argentine stops are expected to be overshadowed by the emotional highlight of the South American trip, Leo’s return to Peru. A large national celebration is planned to greet him. He spent more than two decades as a missionary priest and bishop in Peru, where he is known as Padre Robert and is remembered for ministering to poor communities, especially in times of crisis.

In Buenos Aires, Leo was scheduled to visit Devoto Prison, where Francis often ministered when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires. Francis celebrated Masses there, visited cellblocks housing inmates with AIDS, and washed the feet of prisoners during the annual Holy Week ritual. The prison, inaugurated in 1927, is undergoing its definitive closure, with more than 1,000 inmates being transferred to a new penitentiary complex.

During the last military dictatorship, from 1976 to 1983, the prison functioned as a clandestine detention and torture center. It was designated a Memory Site in 2012 so that the military repression would not be forgotten. Human rights lawyers have petitioned the courts to prevent any decision on the sale or disposal of the land and facilities once all inmates are moved. They argue that “the space must be preserved until the investigations regarding the crimes against humanity that occurred” there are finalized.

In 1978, 65 common prisoners were killed in what became known as the Masacre del Pabellón Séptimo, or Seventh Pavilion Massacre. The military dictatorship officially covered up the incident, but the courts found it was an act of state violence. In December 2025, a federal court sentenced former prison chiefs Juan Carlos Ruiz and Horacio Martín Galíndez to 25 years in prison for the torture of 153 detainees and for the deaths of 65 of them, which resulted from a fire during the massacre and the violent repression of inmates. Both men were over 90 years old when they were sentenced.

Leo has continued Francis’s practice of meeting with inmates during foreign trips, saying it is meant to remind them that they are not alone and remain beloved children of God, a moment of care for people held apart from others (Matthew 25:35). His most recent such visit, to a prison in Equatorial Guinea, included moments the AP described as among the most chilling of his pontificate, when inmates were made to sing and dance for him in pouring rain.

After the prison visit, Leo will travel to the Basilica of Nuestra Señora de Luján, dedicated to Argentina’s patron saint. The municipality of Luján, about 72 kilometers (45 miles) northwest of Buenos Aires, urged pilgrims to arrive several days early because of the event’s scale and the extensive security and logistical deployment. Each October, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims walk to the basilica from Buenos Aires and nearby towns to give thanks or make requests to the Virgin of Luján, to whom Francis was particularly devoted.

This year’s pilgrimage took place under persistent rain, yet more than 2.8 million people took part, a record for the shrine, municipal authorities said.

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