Pope Leo XIV presided over the most crowded Mass of his pontificate on Monday, November 9, in Buenos Aires, with an attendance that official estimates place at around 2.5 million people. The celebration took place next to the Monument of the Spaniards, in the Palermo neighborhood, marking the first Mass celebrated by a Pope on Argentine soil since John Paul II’s visit, and it marked the second day of the apostolic journey that takes the Pontiff to Uruguay, Argentina, and Peru.
The following day, Tuesday the 10th, on the feast of Saint Leo the Great, the Pope celebrated another Mass in Córdoba, at the grounds of the Military Aviation School, before some 650,000 faithful, according to figures released by the Vatican. Many attendees spent the night at the venue to secure a place in a celebration that organizers described as historic.
The largest open-air gathering in the country’s history
According to EWTN News, the Buenos Aires Mass was the largest outdoor Eucharistic celebration in Argentina’s history and surpassed even the one presided over by John Paul II in 1982 at the same location, which drew about two million faithful. Access to the grounds opened at midnight, on a day declared a national holiday for the visit, and numerous pilgrims camped overnight in the surrounding area.
The crowd followed the ceremony along Avenida del Libertador, with streets closed to traffic. The popemobile passed through shortly after eleven in the morning, almost an hour later than planned, and the Mass was scheduled for 11:30. EWTN also gathered testimonies from several young attendees, including Martina Navarro, who said it was “incredible to see the Church so alive, so happy to welcome Pope Leo.”
A homily focused on the family
In his homily, Leo XIV spoke of the family as the place where faith and human virtues are transmitted, and drew applause when he recalled Francis, who was Archbishop of Buenos Aires. InfoVaticana previously reported on the Pope’s message to Argentine Christian families, in a country with a high divorce rate.
The day also included a morning visit to the Pequeño Cottolengo Don Orione in Claypole, and a meeting with victims of clerical abuse. During the popemobile’s passage, a group of young people displayed a banner with the slogan “Young people want the Traditional Mass”.
Official figures
Both the Buenos Aires and Córdoba figures are official estimates and not independent counts. The capital’s figure, 2.5 million, includes those who followed the celebration from the avenue’s layout and those who watched the Pontiff pass by. Córdoba’s figure, 650,000, falls short of local authorities’ forecasts, which had estimated up to 800,000 attendees.
After the Córdoba Mass, the Pope held a meeting with bishops, priests, deacons, religious, and seminarians at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption and then returned to Buenos Aires, where he continues his schedule before traveling to Peru.