Claypole (Argentina) (AFP) - Pope Leo XIV warned this Monday that a country is measured by the inclusion of people with disabilities, when visiting a charity house in Argentina, where President Javier Milei is criticized for the harsh adjustment policies that affect the sector.

First modification: 11/09/2026 - 14:15

The Cottolengo Don Orione in Claypole, in a humble neighborhood in the south of Buenos Aires, houses 410 adults with disabilities. The vast majority do not receive visits from family or friends.

"The progress of a nation is also measured by the welcome it knows how to give to all people with disabilities and special needs," the 71-year-old pontiff said in his speech.

Leo XIV arrived in Argentina on Sunday from Uruguay, the first stage of a South American tour that will end in Peru. In his first speech in Buenos Aires he asked that growth reach those most in need and respect those who think differently, a weighty message to Milei, who attacks critics and whose adjustment the Church questions.

This Monday, he defended the dignity of people with disabilities: "Your lives are not a burden on society; they are a blessing, because you can help us not to forget what is the foundation of the dignity of each human being and what is really important in life," the pope said.

The cuts by Javier Milei's government in care for people with disabilities have been one of the focuses of protest against his adjustment policy since he took office in December 2023.

After negotiations in which the Catholic Church participated, the ruling party and the opposition agreed on a project to guarantee the financing of benefits. Deputies approved it in October and it must still be voted on in the Senate.

"Individualism and exclusion"

Since dawn, families and groups of friends were stationed on both sides of the path that the pontiff was going to walk in Claypole. At the doors of Cottolengo, people hugged and waved Argentine and Vatican flags. In a neighboring park, a band alternated religious songs with prayers.

Ana Trucco, a 22-year-old student, said she came closer to faith by reading Francis' encyclicals. "We must always be thinking about the most humble of our country who are being so abandoned today," he told AFP. "That Pope Leo comes with the legacy of Francis to speak to those people seems very important to me."

At the Cottolengo, Leo XIV met outdoors with the residents and staff of the home.

"I was resentful because I felt like I had been thrown away. I didn't understand why this was happening to me (...) until I understood that Cottolengo was what I needed to fill the void I felt," Marta Donato, a resident of the home who suffers from rheumatoid arthritis, said in her testimony in front of the pope. He is 57 years old and has lived in the home for 44 years.

Later, Leo

Later in the day, the pope will celebrate a mass in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Palermo, where thousands of people had been queuing since dawn to enter, including many families with children. Groups of faithful arrived in buses organized by their parishes. On some corners, young people with guitars cheered up the wait with songs and clapping.

"What we need most is unity, we are so divided," said Soledad Troncoso, a 67-year-old retiree who arrived from Wilde, on the southern outskirts, with her sister and several neighbors, on the verge of crying. "May his word endure, may it bring blessing to this country where so much is suffered."

© 2026 AFP

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