Pope Francis traveled around the 12 -year -old papacy, stopping in 68 countries with 47 apostolic visits, but never returned to his native Argentina.
Francis, the former archbishop of Buenos Aires who died on Monday at the age of 88, did not return to his homeland despite the early signage in his wishes.
The 266 Pontiff, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in the neighborhood of Flores of the Argentine capital, never spoke publicly about his failure to return to the South American country.
Francis had an open invitation to visit Argentina from the four presidents that his papacy served since 2013, along with the Argentine Episcopal Conference.
According to reports, fears of causing greater political and economic divisions in the country were a significant factor why Francis decided not to return to Argentina, since he did not want to be a divisive figure at home.
“It’s sad, because we should be proud to have an Argentine Pope,” said Francis’s neighboring neighbor, Ardina Aragón, Associated Press. “I think there were political factors that influenced him.”
When he went to the Vatican in March 2013 to participate in the conclave after the surprise resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, Francis believed he would return shortly, he would tell the parishioners: “See you soon.”
Francis, a Jesuit, faced the Argentine political class that dates from when he was an archbishop.
He criticized the “autocratic tendencies” or the country’s political class, an excavation that then President Nitor Kirchner and his wife, former president Cristina Fernández, Kirchner was not kindly.
Francis at that time supported the position of the Catholic Church on same -sex marriage, which falsred with Fernández El Kirchner who legalized it in 2010.
Francis was not seen face to face with the current president of Argentina, Javier Milei, after the former television personality called the Pope a “jerk” and “the representative of the evil on earth” before assuming the position.
Milei also criticized the Pope for the promotion of social justice, supporting taxes and sympathizing with “murderous communists.”
In 2024, the two hugged within the Vatican before the canonization mass of the first female saint of Argentina, María Antonia de Paz and Figueroa in what was characterized as a “cordial meeting”.
Francis’s attempt to separate from Argentina may have caused his favorability among his countrymen.
In a common trend between several Latin American countries and the United States, Francisco’s popularity passed through his mandate in the city of the Vatican, but saw the greatest decrease in his country of origin.
A Pew research survey found 91 percent of the Argentine heroes a favorable opinion of him when he was first chosen for the papacy in 2013.
In September 2024, the figure fell to 64 percent.
Thirty percent of adults had unfavorable opinions towards Francis, a strong increase of three percent in 2013.
Allle never visited Argentina, Francis returned to South America when he visited Brazil in the first months of his life in his first trip abroad in July 2013.
He visited four of the five nations that border Argentina: Brazil, Bolivia, Chile and Paraguay.
The archbishop of Buenos Aires Jorge Ignacio García Cuerva, a successor of Francis in his former diocese, said that his parishioners became “orpans of a father who deeply loved his country and had to learn to become Windle World.”
He added that “Francis Boing Pope” the Argentine cost us a bit … Bergoglio left us to become Francis. “