During a stop in Claypole, Pope Leo XIV rode in the popemobile, waved to crowds along the route, then stepped down to greet supporters near the entrance. Video footage showed him moving past the faithful, acknowledging those who had come to see him, and pausing in the chapel before the relic of St Luigi Orione’s heart.
At the Pequeño Cottolengo Don Orione in Claypole, in Almirante Brown partido some 30km south of Buenos Aires, the pope unveiled a commemorative plaque and toured part of the 50-hectare site, which houses more than 400 people with disabilities in 16 homes. Welcomed by Bishop Jorge Rubén Lugones of Lomas de Zamora and the centre’s director, Brother Jorge David Silanes, he told residents their lives “are not a burden for society, they are a blessing”, adding that a nation’s progress is measured by how it welcomes people with disabilities.
The visit formed part of his 12-day tour of Uruguay, Argentina and Peru. Argentina had not hosted a reigning pontiff since John Paul II in 1987. Leo XIV arrived in Buenos Aires on Sunday 8 November, welcomed by President Javier Milei at Jorge Newbery. The choice of Don Orione, founded in 1935 as a “city of charity”, drew attention to care services at a time when disability funding is politically contested.
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