About 15.5 million Argentines lived in poverty in the first half of 2026. That amounted to 32.3 percent of the population, according to INDEC, the national statistics institute. Five weeks before Pope Leo XIV's scheduled visit, Buenos Aires Archbishop Jorge García Cuerva said the pope would find a "wounded" country. A government aide told him to stop talking politics.
García Cuerva spoke to reporters Friday, 2 October, after Mass at the Metropolitan Cathedral, La Gaceta reported. "He will find a wounded Argentina, a divided Argentina, with that famous rift," he said of the pope. The country, he added, is one "where disqualification and intolerance are the order of the day." He said it hurt to see "a very large percentage" of Argentines "having a hard time." He didn't name President Milei, Infobae noted, and praised working families "who don't give up," according to El Día.
The Attack on the Archbishop
The sharpest reply came within hours. Felipe Núñez, an adviser to Economy Minister Luis Caputo and a director of BICE, a state-owned bank that finances investment and foreign trade, posted on X. "As a Catholic I am tired of this guy," he wrote. "Less politics and more preaching the word of God, Cuerva." La Nación reported the post at 14:05 local time.
The criticism spread beyond the Church. Ricardo Alfonsín, a former congressman and son of the late president Raúl Alfonsín, called the post disrespectful, El Destape reported. Christian faith, he argued, requires attention to social suffering. Ministers stayed publicly silent, Infobae reported.
El Día reported that senior ministers left the counterattack to second-tier figures such as Núñez. The government, the outlet said, wanted to separate García Cuerva from the rest of the Church hierarchy. Officials value their ties with Marcelo Colombo, head of the Argentine Episcopal Conference. "They are not the same political ties," an official at the presidential palace told Infobae. Some officials privately link García Cuerva to Kirchnerism, the left-wing Peronist movement of former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.
What the Numbers Show
The government points to a poverty rate of 52.9 percent in the first half of 2024, after Milei's devaluation and spending cuts. The newest figures tell a harder story. Poverty stood at 28.2 percent in the second half of 2025, meaning roughly 2 million more people are now poor. Indigence, or extreme poverty, rose to 7.5 percent from 6.3 percent over the same six months.
Bishops say those gains haven't reached ordinary households. In August, Ángel Rossi, the archbishop of Córdoba, put it this way: "the macroeconomy does not reach the plate." García Cuerva has made the same point for months. At the 25 May Tedeum, the thanksgiving service for Argentina's national day, he warned against "division and polarisation," La Nación recalled. On 7 August, the feast of San Cayetano, patron saint of work, he said absolute economic freedom cannot exist, El Día and Infobae reported.
A Disability Law and a Visit to Claypole
The pope's schedule adds pressure. He plans to visit Pequeño Cottolengo Don Orione, a home for disabled people in Claypole, on 9 November, Perfil reported. That stop comes as Congress debates a new disability law, with disputes over cost and wording unresolved. "The Cottolengo part is going to go badly," one government source told Perfil. Another official said, "We do not think there will be problems." The government wants Congress to settle the law before November.
Leo XIV is due to land in Buenos Aires on Sunday 8 November and meet Milei at the Casa Rosada. García Cuerva was expected to speak again at the youth pilgrimage to Luján, a 60-kilometre walk to Argentina's main Marian shrine. The 52nd edition runs on 3 and 4 October and doubles as a logistics rehearsal for the pope's mass there. El Día reported that the dispute hasn't changed the visit programme and that government, Church and local authorities continue coordinating.
Why This Matters: This row involves more than manners between a prelate and a bank director. INDEC's figures show about 2 million more people in poverty in six months, and extreme poverty is climbing. Church leaders are among the few national voices describing that hardship, and a government aide has told one of them to stay out of it. The disability law will test whether public policy reaches some of the country's most vulnerable people before the pope visits a home for disabled residents. A government can cite a falling poverty rate from 2024 and still owe an answer to households where, in Archbishop Rossi's words, the macroeconomy "does not reach the plate." How officials answer the Church, and what Congress decides on disability support, will show whether the economy's critics are heard or dismissed.