2024-02-12 16:06:45
Javier Milei met this Monday at the Vatican with the Pope. The private meeting lasted one hour and it was the second contact between the President and Francis, who on Sunday had exchanged greetings in St. Peter’s Basilica within the framework of the canonization ceremony of Mama Antula.
The meeting between Milei and the Pope took place within the framework of the thaw of the relationship between the two. Gone were the insults to Francisco for which the President had already apologized.
The president was with Francisco in the Library on the second floor of the Apostolic Palace from 9 local hours (5 in Argentina) to 10. After the private meeting, the Pope greeted the delegation made up of the Secretary General of the Presidency, Karina Milei; Foreign Minister Diana Mondino; the Minister of the Interior, Guillermo Francos; the Minister of Human Capital, Sandra Pettovello; the announced Secretary of Worship, Francisco Sánchez; and the rabbi appointed ambassador to Israel, Axel Wahnish.
After the meeting, the Vatican highlighted in a statement “the good relations between the Holy See and the Argentine Republic” and expressed the Supreme Pontiff’s “satisfaction” in this regard, as well as his “desire to further strengthen the bond.”
The press release detailed that Milei and the Pope “They focused on the new Government’s program to confront the economic crisis, and several international issues were addressed.particularly current conflicts and the commitment to peace among nations.”
During the traditional exchange of gifts, the President gave the Pope a folder with a copy of the handwritten letter from Chancellor José María Gutiérrez to Juan Bautista Alberdi accrediting him as representative in Europe, dated May 1854; a painting with the commemorative postcard of the brand new Saint Mama Antula that the Argentine Postal Service distributed in August 2017 on the occasion of her beatification and dulce de leche alfajores and lemon cookies.
Francisco, meanwhile, gave him a bronze medal inspired by the baldachin of Saint Peter, a collection of his writings bound in red leather and gold details, including the encyclicals Laudato si’ and Fratelli Tutti, and a copy of the message to this year’s World Day of Peace, focused on Artificial Intelligence.
One of the topics on the agenda, as the president had anticipated, was the invitation to Jorge Mario Bergoglio to visit Argentina for the first time since he was enthroned in March 2013a possibility that the Pope considers “a hypothesis” for the second half of the year.
Today was the first private meeting between Milei and the Pope, after yesterday they had briefly greeted each other at the beginning and end of the mass for the canonization of Mama Antula, in which the president participated.
After the meeting with the Pope, the President met with the Vatican Secretary of State, Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin.
The president arrived at the Patio San Damaso of the Vatican at 8:57 local time, where he was received by the head of the Prefecture of the Pontifical Household, Leonardo Sapienza, while an Argentine flag waved in front of the building and the Swiss guards formed the traditional picket line. honorary.
Milei arrived at the Vatican about 10 minutes late as he got out of the car he was traveling in to take photos with Argentine pilgrims who were waiting for him in front of the Argentine embassy on the Roman Via della Conciliazione.