Pope Leo XIV visits care centre for people with disabilities in Argentina
Pope Leo XIV visited the Don Orione care centre in Claypole, near Buenos Aires, home to more than 400 people with disabilities. He told residents their lives are not a burden on society but a blessing.
Pope Leo XIV, head of the Roman Catholic Church, visited the Pequeño Cottolengo Don Orione care centre in Claypole, in Almirante Brown partido, about 30 kilometres south of Buenos Aires, Argentina, on 9 November. The stop is part of his 12-day tour of Uruguay, Argentina and Peru, and it put the spotlight on care services at a time when disability funding is politically contested in the country.
Meeting the residents
The pope rode in the popemobile along the route, waving to crowds, then stepped out to greet people waiting near the entrance. In the chapel he paused before the relic of the heart of St Luigi Orione. At the centre he unveiled a commemorative plaque and toured part of the 50-hectare site, which houses more than 400 people with disabilities in 16 homes.
He was welcomed by Bishop Jorge Rubén Lugones of Lomas de Zamora and the centre's director, Brother Jorge David Silanes. Addressing residents, Leo XIV said their lives "are not a burden for society, they are a blessing", and added that a nation's progress is measured by how it welcomes people with disabilities.
Context of the tour
Argentina is the homeland of his predecessor, Pope Francis, but it had not hosted a reigning pontiff since John Paul II in 1987. Leo XIV arrived in Buenos Aires on Sunday 8 November, where President Javier Milei welcomed him at Jorge Newbery airport. Don Orione was founded in 1935 as a "city of charity".
