Claypole (Argentina) (AFP) – Many of the 410 residents of Cottolengo, with severe disabilities, probably do not realize that the Pope will soon visit them. But between prayers for his health and preparations, this famous Argentinian charitable institution is bathed in excitement.

Published on: 02/11/2026 - 1:01 p.m.

During his Argentine stopover, Leo

Until then, we are busy, confident in the pope's arrival despite his operation. Technicians take measurements, evaluate locations for cameras, the stage, chairs, etc.

"We have continued to work in the same way from the beginning, there has been no change" despite the Pope's hospitalization, assures AFP Luciana Ponce, coordinator of the Cottolengo homes, which employs 380 people.

“I hope I can meet him and he will feel at home,” Esteban, a 44-year-old resident, told AFP, meticulously cleaning a cup made in his ceramic workshop.

Sometimes nicknamed "the little town of charity", the Claypole center is one of 14 operating between Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.

Budget debate on disability

And in Argentina, the papal spotlight on Cottolengo comes in the middle of the budgetary debate on disability.

The executive of ultraliberal President Javier Milei planned a reform denounced by associations and the opposition as a disguised budgetary adjustment.

The Episcopal Social Commission issued a call to order in September, in a text entitled “the fragility which humanizes us”.

“Faced with fragility, the State's response must not be reduced to a mathematical equation. Behind each therapy, treatment or medication, there is a real person with a life project, pains and hopes,” wrote the Argentine Church.

“People with disabilities are a priority for the government,” the presidential spokesperson had to reassure, in the midst of the controversy.

Parliamentary negotiations since then have finally made it possible to maintain, for 2027, the budget of an “emergency disability law” adopted in 2025. In time for the arrival of the Pope.

The disabled “protagonists”

The pope's visit to Cottolengo will be closed to the public, but outside the estate, giant screens will allow thousands of people to follow him.

Two women, one blind, who have been residents for decades, have been appointed to bear witness to their lives during this visit which will include a ceremony in the chapel.

“We are going to remove all the benches from the chapel to bring in as many wheelchairs as possible, we want the disabled to be involved” in the visit, underlines Brother Jorge Silanes, director of Cottolengo.

But in the center housing people suffering from multiple disabilities, neurological or psychomotor, there is a place where no camera will follow Leo XIV: a pavilion where he will enter alone, in contact with the most seriously affected residents, in "high dependency".

The Cottolengo of Claypole, founded in 1936, owes its name to Saint Giuseppe Benedetto Cottolengo (1786-1842), a Piedmontese priest who opened a home in Turin in 1828 to accommodate disabled patients refused elsewhere.

The Argentine home also bears the name "Don Orione" in reference to the Italian priest canonized in 2004, founder of the Little Work of Divine Providence, in the continuation of the work of Cottolengo. A relic of his heart is kept there.

© 2026 AFP

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