Leo XIV’s Argentina visit in figures: more than six million presences

Leo XIV has concluded the Argentine leg of his apostolic journey to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru. After four days in the country, on 11 November he took off from Ministro Pistarini International Airport (Ezeiza) at 2:38 p.m. local time (6:38 p.m. in Rome), bound for Lima. Arrival is scheduled at Callao Air Base at 5:30 p.m. Peru time (11:30 p.m. in Rome), according to the Holy See’s official program.

Attendance at the major public gatherings, according to the official estimates for each event, figures also reported by DW and EFE, exceeded six million. These figures count the attendance at each celebration: those who took part in more than one gathering are counted more than once.

In Buenos Aires, on 9 November, some 2.5 million people gathered for Holy Mass at the Monumento de los Españoles, according to local authorities (Vatican News, L’Osservatore Romano). The next day, 650,000 filled the Mass on the grounds of the Military Aviation School in Córdoba (Holy See Press Office Bulletin B0896), and about a million young people kept vigil in the capital, again at the Monumento de los Españoles (Bulletin B0898). On 11 November, at the Basilica of Our Lady of Luján, more than two million faithful accompanied the Pope for his last Mass in Argentina (Vatican News, EFE, ANSA).

Along the way Leo XIV visited the Cottolengo in Claypole, entered the Devoto federal prison in Buenos Aires, entrusted his pontificate to the Virgin of Luján and presented her with a Golden Rose. In the homily at Luján he called on Argentina to “rise up and go forth.”

At the farewell in Ezeiza, in a message published in Spanish on @Pontifex_es, the Pope gave thanks for the welcome and wrote that he had felt at home: from now on, he added, Argentina has two Popes, “one who was born here and another by adoption.” He then boarded the aircraft for Lima, where the third and final leg of the journey begins.

Sources: Vatican News, L’Osservatore Romano, Holy See Press Office Bulletin (B0896, B0898), EFE, ANSA, DW, @Pontifex_es. Photo: Vatican Media via CatholicSat.