Pope Leo draws 650,000 to Mass in Córdoba, calls Argentina a 'land of saints'
Illustration: Press Pass USAPope Leo XIV drew an estimated 650,000 people to an outdoor Mass in Argentina's second city of Córdoba on Tuesday, a day after some 2.5 million turned out in Buenos Aires, in a second huge show of support on his 12-day tour of South America.
Throngs of people pressed against barriers on the grounds of the Military Aviation School, at the state-run Argentine Aircraft Factory, as Leo arrived in an open-air popemobile, many waving white-and-yellow Vatican flags and chanting "We love you, Pope Leo." Local authorities put attendance at between 650,000 and 800,000 people.
In his homily, the pope praised Argentina's long history of Catholic devotion, calling Córdoba a "land of saints" and holding up the example of its best-known holy figures: Mama Antula, the 18th-century nun who became Argentina's first woman saint, and a bishop, two priests and a layman who were killed by the Argentine military junta in 1976. "Here in Cordoba ... we wish to give thanks to God for the diverse fruits of holiness borne by the men and women whom the Lord sent to this land of Argentina," he said. He urged Argentines to follow the saints' example and build a more fraternal and caring nation.
Leo is the first pope to visit majority-Catholic Argentina since 1987, and the first U.S.-born pope. Monday's Mass in Buenos Aires, before an estimated 2.5 million people, was the largest crowd of his 18-month papacy. On Tuesday he traveled some 1,300 kilometers (807 miles) back and forth from Buenos Aires for two events in Córdoba, a city in the foothills of the Sierras Chicas with deep Catholic history and long ties to the Jesuit order. Argentine Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno said Córdoba was chosen as a stop because of its central location, allowing pilgrims to travel easily from neighboring provinces.
The pope is using the trip — his first to South America as pope, running through November 17 with stops in Uruguay, Argentina and Peru — to reinforce a region that has long been a Catholic stronghold but where the Church has been losing ground to fast-growing evangelical denominations. The Vatican has described the tour, one of the most demanding foreign trips by a pope in decades and less than a month after Leo underwent surgery to remove part of his right lung, as a "homecoming" for him: he spent decades as a missionary in Peru.
In Argentina, Leo has also directly challenged President Javier Milei, a libertarian and close ally of Donald Trump, over austerity policies the Church has strongly criticized for cutting social services. On Sunday he urged Milei not to target Argentina's poorest. Córdoba's Cardinal Ángel Sixto Rossi, a critic of the austerity measures, said he welcomed the visit as a chance for the pope to see how Argentina is suffering under them. "He knows how beautiful our people are and the ugly part, the leadership of the government," Rossi said. "He doesn't arrive blindfolded."
Sources: Reuters, "Pope Leo draws 650,000 in another strong Argentine turnout" (Nov. 10, 2026); Associated Press, "Pope urges Argentines to follow model of saints during Mass in the 'land of saints'" (Nov. 10, 2026); Catho News, "Leo XIV Draws Vast Crowds to Córdoba Holy Mass" (Nov. 10, 2026).
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