During the canonization ceremony of the first Argentine woman saint, by Pope Francis in the Basilica of Saint Peter in Rome, many Argentines made the trip including President Javier Milei, who met Pope Francis for the first time.
Mama Antula’s canonization ceremony marked the first meeting between the Argentine pope and Javier Milei, who called Francis “imbecile” for standing up for social justice. The president, who was seated to Pope Francis’ right side of the main altar throughout the ceremony, leaned over and hugged the pope when he was brought to him at the end of the service.
“Much gracias…!!!” Javier Milei wrote on Instagram, alongside a photo of the embrace.
Mama Antula was an 18th-century laywoman who cared for the poor and helped maintain Jesuit spirituality in Argentina after the religious order – to which the pope belongs – was suppressed.
Argentinians attended the canonization en masse, which turned into a sort of Argentinian celebration in Rome. Javier Milei greeted supporters in the pews as he entered and exited the basilica and posed for selfie photos, as Argentines celebrated a saint who defied norms for women of her time to spread the faith.
In his homily, Francis praised Mama Antula as a model of charity and urged the faithful to truly touch the wounds of the poor, as Jesus overcame fear and prejudice to touch the wounds of lepers. “How many suffering men and women do we encounter on the sidewalks of our cities? “And how many fears, prejudices and inconsistencies, even in everyday life?
Among those who are believers and call themselves Christians, contribute to hurting them even more!”
Javier Milei visits Italy
Javier Milei is due to meet privately with Pope Francis on Monday, before also meeting with far-right Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and the president.
During his campaign, Mr. Milei called Francis “imbecile” and of “representative of malignancy on Earth“.
Pope Francis spoke at length with Javier Milei after his election in December and indicated that he forgave him for his campaign rhetoric. Francis said he plans to visit Argentina later this year, which would be his first trip to his country since his election in 2013.
After arriving in Rome on Friday from Israel, where Javier Milei announced the transfer of the Argentine embassy to Jerusalem, the president visited the Colosseum and the church housing one of Michelangelo’s best-known sculptures : a seated Moses.
In an Instagram post accompanying a photo of himself looking at the sculpture, Javier Milei wrote his frequent motto “Long live freedom damn it! !!“.
The president, who describes himself as an anarcho-capitalist, has promised to drastically cut state spending to close a government budget deficit that he says is fueling inflation that ended 2023 at 211%.
On Sunday, he appeared firmly engaged in Mass, making the sign of the cross several times, receiving communion and burying his head in his hands as he knelt to pray after Mass.
Mama Antula the beloved
Mama Antula, born María Antonia de Paz y Figueroa, is a beloved figure among Argentines, a woman who abandoned a life of privilege to spread Ignatian spirituality across Argentina after the Jesuits were expelled from the Spanish colonies. Argentine women in particular consider her as a model of strength and independence, at a time when women only had the choice between marriage and entry into a convent. “The first female saint is a huge step forward.”, declared Argentine pilgrim Annabella Lopez while waiting for the start of mass. “It’s a shame this couldn’t have happened sooner, but it’s good, now women are starting to have more visibility and that’s a big step forward for the Church“.
Silvia Correale, who shepherded Mama Antula’s sainthood process, said she remembered meeting the future Pope Francis for the first time when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires and Mama Antula’s candidacy had just crossed a threshold. significant obstacle in the Vatican.
_”I know that he esteems her a lot, like all the Jesuits in Argentina and Uruguay, because they consider her their spiritual mother,” Ms. Correale told the Associated Press before the ceremony. “They know that she kept alive the treasure of the spiritual exercises of Saint Ignatius during the years when they were not there. “
The current archbishop of Buenos Aires, Most Reverend Jorge Ignacio García Cuerva, said, however, that it would be wrong to think that Mama Antula only became a saint because an Argentine Jesuit pope heads the Catholic Church.
He noted that the current process began in 1905 and that it was Pope Benedict XVI who put her on the path to eventual sainthood when he declared her venerable in 2010.
“It is a gift from God that Pope Francis – an Argentinian pope, a Jesuit pope – can canonize her“, did he declare. “But Mama Antula is a saint independent of Francis.” He added