Papa León XIV celebró una misa histórica en Luján ante cientos de miles de fieles
Pope Leo XIV celebrated a mass at the basilica of Luján, one of Argentina's most important pilgrimage sites, closing the major public events of his visit to the country.
Pope Leo XIV celebrated a mass on the plaza of the Luján basilica, the most important event of his visit to Argentina. The celebration began at 10 a.m. on Wednesday and drew faithful from across the country. Reports differ on the size of the crowd: the headline of the original coverage cites more than 3.5 million people, while the body of that reporting gives a figure of over 2 million. The discrepancy has not been resolved in the material available for this report, so both figures are presented as they appeared in the coverage.
The Luján basilica is one of the most important pilgrimage sites in Argentina. It is home to the shrine of Our Lady of Luján, the country's patroness, and for many believers the visit to the sanctuary is a central expression of popular devotion. The choice of this place as the final major public act of the visit gave the celebration particular weight for Argentine Catholics, many of whom travelled from distant provinces to attend, as the reporting notes that the faithful came from across Argentina.
The mass came after a full schedule in the preceding days. On Wednesday morning, before the celebration in Luján, the pope visited the Devoto federal penitentiary complex in Buenos Aires, where he met with incarcerated people. There he spoke about fresh starts, reconciliation and social reintegration, themes directed at a community that rarely receives such direct attention from religious leaders in public events. The prison visit thus formed a deliberate counterpoint to the large open-air celebration that followed later in the day.
On Tuesday night, the pope had taken part in a vigil with young people at the Monumento de los Españoles in Palermo, in the Argentine capital. The vigil was held at the intersection of Libertador and Sarmiento avenues, one of the central points of the city's public life. Earlier in the tour, he had also visited the city of Córdoba, which marked another stage of his travels through the country.
The Luján celebration marks the close of the Argentine part of the journey, and the agenda that follows has been set out in detail. A farewell ceremony is scheduled at Ezeiza airport at 1:30 p.m., after which the pope is due to depart for Lima at 2 p.m. Peru is the next stop on his South American tour, and the sequence of departure from Argentina to the next country on the itinerary completes the movement that began with his arrival in the capital and continued through Córdoba, the penitentiary visit, the youth vigil and the Luján mass.
Source: canal13sanjuan.com
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