“I don’t want to talk about Javier Milei here, in front of the cross, in front of Jesus Christ. If you want, let’s go outside,” says Ana Maria Morales, 65 years old, as she moves the DN report to the courtyard of the Basílica María Auxiliadora y San Carlos, the temple where one Jorge Mario Bergoglio, now Pope Francis, was baptized on Christmas Day 1936, a week after he was born.
Now, far from the cross and His gaze, Dona Ana, retired, says that she is “tired of Kirchnerism to the roots of her hair,” referring to the current, yet another, of the complex and heterogeneous Peronism, led by Nelson and Cristina Kirchner, both former presidents of Argentina, the first who died in 2010, and the second Alberto Fernández’s current vice president.
Mrs. Ana is tired of Kirchnerism and would therefore be a potential voter for Milei, since her rival Sergio Massa, although trying to break away from the controversial image of the Kirchner couple, is the current Minister of Economy and therefore is the perfect example. as a government politician, as an official candidate.
‘I doubt I will vote for him, most likely I will vote blank, but in this one pipe who has offended the Pope, never,” he guarantees.pipe“, an expression meaning “child”, that is not so “pipelike this: Milei is 53 years old, two years older than Massa, but because he only entered politics two years ago, he wears his hair in a mess, shouts a lot and walks around with a chainsaw in his hand saying that if he starts cutting the fat of the state, he will look like a misbehaving child in a world of adults.
However, bad behavior went beyond the boundaries of politics and reached the territory of the sacred: Milei accused Pope Francis of being “the evil one on earth,” “promoting communism,” and being “nefarious” and “imbecile.”
“Stupid, stupid, ignorant, disastrous, left-handed [no sentido de esquerdista]practitioner of the model based on hatred, envy and resentment”, declared the candidate of La Libertad Avanza, the most voted in the PASO (primary, open, simultaneous and compulsory) in August, second placed in the first round of October and leader , by a narrow margin, in the polls ahead of Sunday’s decisive vote.
“Pope Francis seems to me one of the worst and most disastrous figures (…) As a Jesuit, he promoted communism, which was an economic, social and cultural failure,” he said on another occasion.
“What is social justice? It is envy,” he emphasized in a television program three years ago. And he continued: “Envy is a cardinal sin. The idiot in Rome, who defends social justice, must be made aware that it is a theft of the commandments.”
To a message from Francis on the social network “Dedicated to you, left-handed bastard who preaches communism all over the world, you are the representative of the evil one in the house of God, long live damned freedom,” he said in another occasion. “And Jesus paid no taxes,” he added.
However, the Pope necessarily sent more subtle messages to Milei. “The far right is always rebuilding itself, it is the triumph of egoism over communitarianism,” he said about the elections in March. “I am very afraid of these saviors of the homeland with no history in party politics.”
“I am very afraid of the Pied Pipers of Hamelin because they are charming: if they were made of snakes I wouldn’t mind, but they are charming people and they drown in the end,” he said on another occasion. , to the Argentine news agency Telám, referring to the character from the Brothers Grimm story who enchanted mice and children. “There are those who believe that it is possible to get out of a crisis dancing to the sound of the whistle, with rescuers appearing overnight, but no: the crisis must be accepted and overcome, always upwards “.
“Sometimes, when they hear me say things in social encyclicals, they say that the Pope is a communist. That is not the case. The Pope follows the Gospel and says what the Gospel says. I know they say things about me, but for my sanity, I ignore it and pray for them,” he concluded.
Mass in defense of Francis
The Argentine Catholic Church came to the pope’s defense during a mass in Buenos Aires for the parish of the Virgin of the Miracles of Caacupé, in Villa 21-24, in the Barracas neighborhood, with 1,000 faithful holding photos of Francisco and banners with the inscription “in solidarity with the Pope and the poor”.
Father Pepe Di Paola said Milei’s attacks on Francisco were “unworthy of a candidate.” “He says ‘social justice shit’, but this ‘shit’ is part of the Gospel, the social doctrine of the church. Ultimately the attack goes to the roots of our faith and humanism, because social justice does not start with resentment and envy, but in understanding what freedom means, and that is not just doing what you want.”
Unlike Dona Ana, it is from the church, facing the Crucified Christ, that nurse Karina Basso tells DN in all words that Milei “is a false prophet” and “an eccentric who has no mercy and that it is more a criminal then looks like something else.” .”
Basso’s angry tone, which has to vote for Massa “without much pleasure, but because it is a much lesser evil”, decreases in volume as the preparations for the always expected mass in the Basílica María Auxiliadora y San Carlos approach.
Located in the center of Buenos Aires, the Basilica, a monumental building built in the first decade of the last century by the Order of Salesians, not only launched the ecclesiastical career of baby Jorge Mario, who was baptized there 33 years before his death. became a priest 56 years before he became a bishop, 65 before he became a cardinal and 77 before he became Pope Francis. The Basilica Auxiliadora also launched the musical career of Carlos Gardel, one of the most important Argentine myths, although Uruguayan, considered the father of tango: he was a member of the church choir in 1901, at the age of 11, as recorded on the plaque at the location.
At the end of the mass, on the way home, Horacio González, 73 years old, retired, sighs deeply before talking about Milei. “I am from the right,” he admits, “I was terrified by the news of what he said about the Pope, not a Catholic, from left to right, he likes to hear people talk like that about the Pope, whether he is Argentinian or not, but I see things like this mode: politics is politics and faith is faith, we must separate and forget.” When asked if Milei will vote, Horácio raises his eyebrows and tilts his head to the side as if to say “what medicine…”.
Dona Ana and Karina, on the other hand, say “never”. Carmen, a church employee who declined to give her last name, confirms: “At first I even found Milei interesting, because there was no money for anything, and given the economic crisis worsened by this government, but in the end I will vote for Massa .the Kirchners, at least they helped the poor a lot.”
According to Carlos De Angelis, professor of sociology of public opinion at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires, “if it is true that many Argentinians on the right complain that Peronism has reached the Vatican together with Francis, others: it Hearing from a candidate that the Pope represents the evil one causes tremendous rejection.”
“Not so much in Buenos Aires, but especially in the north of Argentina, where religious traditions are more commonplace. In fact, Milei’s initial supporters, for reasons more limited to economics, have become more and more astonished, because he thinks that everything is being commercialized, including weapons, children, organs, this issue with the Pope comes in this context of astonishment rightly so,” De Angelis concludes.
In the last debate before the elections, Milei, the candidate of the La Libertad Avanza coalition, was confronted with attacks on Pope Francis by his rival Massa of Unión Por La Patria. “If this calms you and the Argentine people, I have no problem apologizing to the Pope. If we make a mistake, we apologize and that’s it,” the Libertarian Party leader said.
He then added that, if elected, he would be prepared to “receive the Pope in Argentina.” Francis has not visited his homeland since becoming leader of the Catholic Church ten years ago. He even said that he plans to run in 2024, but given the electoral context he has not yet confirmed this.
Source: DN
