Pope Leo XIV visits Cottolengo Don Orione care home in Claypole, Argentina, renewing call to protect vulnerable

Pope Leo XIV renewed his call on Monday for Argentina to protect its weakest and most vulnerable people, speaking during a visit to a home for people with disabilities. The visit was widely read as a symbolic rebuke of President Javier Milei’s austerity measures, according to the Associated Press.

On his first full day in Argentina, Leo made a pilgrimage to the Cottolengo Don Orione in Claypole, south of Buenos Aires. The institution was founded by an Italian priest in 1935 and houses more than 400 people with disabilities on its 123-acre (50-hectare) grounds. Known as the “city of charity,” the center has been hit hard by Milei’s austerity measures, which have severely affected healthcare and social services. The AP reported that the measures have frozen payments to specialized therapy programs that for decades have been a lifeline for many of Argentina’s estimated 5 million people with disabilities.

Some residents and employees wept when Leo arrived and embraced people in wheelchairs. He chatted with them, blessed them, and told them their lives were a blessing, not a burden on society. In the center’s chapel, he said that people could help the nation remember “the foundation of the dignity of every human being and what is truly important in life.” He said he dreamed that Argentines would be inspired to replace the pursuit of economic success and the “cult of outward appearances” with “great works of charity” like the Cottolengo home. “A nation’s progress is also measured by how it welcomes all people with disabilities and particular needs,” he said.

The AP reported that Argentina’s Congress overrode Milei’s veto last year to pass a law increasing funding for disability care. The administration has resisted implementing it, citing concerns that it would undermine the government’s hard-won fiscal balance. Care homes such as Cottolengo are still owed hundreds of thousands of dollars. Leo’s visit comes days before the Senate is due to consider legislation that would set aside money for disability benefits in next year’s budget. Milei opposes that measure. Volunteer Kuyen Rolon Rey said it was deeply significant that Leo chose to begin his Argentina visit with the Cottolengo guests. “The people here deserve this grace,” Rolon Rey said.

Leo’s day was also framed around Catholic social teaching, which calls for placing the weakest and most vulnerable at the center of economic policy. On arrival Sunday, with Milei at his side, Leo repeated Pope Francis’ frequent refrain that money must serve and not rule. “The economy must serve the person, not the person the economy,” he said in his first speech in Argentina. The AP reported that he was expected to repeat the message later Monday when he met with business leaders, union representatives, and leaders of popular movements at the Catholic University of Argentina.

Among those invited were domestic manufacturers battered by cheap imports since Milei scrapped long-standing trade barriers, and members of Argentina’s largest labor confederation. Those union members took their concerns about job losses and shrinking wages to the Vatican in September. The AP noted that since Milei took office in late 2023, his austerity agenda has made him an icon of the global conservative backlash against the liberal establishment. Milei’s government has portrayed the cuts to disability programs as part of a reform process aimed at eliminating fraud and waste in the federal bureaucracy.

For many Argentines, the highlight of the day was expected to be Leo’s late-morning Mass at the Monumento a los Españoles, which was expected to draw as many as 2 million people. The same site hosted the last papal Mass in Argentina, celebrated by St. John Paul II nearly 40 years ago.

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