BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) ā The faithful in lit candles in the church where he found God as a teenager, packed the cathedral where he spoke as archbishop and prayed Monday in the neighborhoods where he earned fame as the āslum bishop."
For millions of Argentines, Francis ā who died Monday at 88 ā was a source of controversy and a spiritual north star whose remarkable life traced their country's turbulent history.
Conservative detractors of the first Latin American pope criticized his support for social justice as an affinity for leftist leaders.
They pointed to his warm meetings with , a divisive left-leaning populist figure whose many Argentines blame for They compared their enthusiastic encounters to an unusually stern-faced Francis meeting center-right for a curt 22 minutes in 2016.
āLike every Argentine, I think he was a rebel,ā said 23-year-old Catalina Favaro, who had come to pay her respects at the downtown cathedral. āHe may have been contradictory, but that was nice, too.ā
Kirchner on Monday paid tribute to her bond with Francis, saying he was āthe face of a more humane churchā and recalling their shared love of a prominent Argentine novelist who lionized the countryās and its efforts to upend class structure in the 1940s and 50s.
Macri called Francis āa stern politicianā but overall āa good pastorā whose name deserves āadmiration and respect.ā
Dedication to the needy
At his regular 8:30 a.m. Mass, Buenos Aires Archbishop Jorge Ignacio GarcĆa Cuerva recalled Francisā dedication to the less fortunate.
āThe pope of the poor, of the marginalized, of those excluded, has passed away,ā GarcĆa Cuerva announced. Alluding to Francisā contested legacy, he added: āHe was the Pope the Argentines, whom we didnāt always understand, but whom we loved.ā
Vatican observers have long after becoming pontiff as an aversion to his countryās polarizing politics.
under , who insulted Francis as a āfilthy leftistā and āthe representative of the evil one on earthā before he took office in December 2023.
last year. But when Argentine police protesting for better pensions in Buenos Aires, Francis broke his customary silence to chide Milei on : āInstead of paying for social justice, they paid for pepper spray,ā he said.
Milei couched his condolences with a nod to those tensions.
āDespite differences that seem minor today, having been able to know him in his kindness and wisdom was a true honor for me,ā he wrote on social media.
But in a sign of increasing political tensions, a large open-air Mass spilling outside Francisā childhood church turned volatile late Monday when Mileiās vice president, Victoria Villarruel, made her way through the crowd to her car.
The crowd, recognizing Villarruel ā a conservative activist with links to Argentinaās notorious military dictatorship ā stopped chanting hymns and started shouting insults. Some shoved and pushed Villarruel but she didn't appear to be hurt and left in her car.
"Get her away from here,ā the crowd shouted. āWeāll hunt you down!ā
Never traveled home as pope
Francis traveled the world ā and ā but never set foot in his homeland after his election in March 2013, much to .
āThatās a political decision, thereās no doubt,ā Alejandra Renaldo, 64, said from Francisā first church in the scruffy, middle-class neighborhood of Flores, less than half a mile from his first home.
āCan you believe he never went to his own land? I much prefer , he went to Poland, his country, right after becoming pope. He didnāt have any political ideas.ā
At the cathedral where Francis, then Jorge Mario Bergoglio, became archbishop in 1998, worshippers bowed their heads in silent prayer. Some wept, ashen. They left flowers and handwritten notes on the steps and affixed stickers for Francisā favorite local soccer team, San Lorenzo, on the stone columns.
In Flores, where Bergoglio was born to an Italian immigrant father and a mother of Italian descent, Argentines stopped to gather around the confessional in the church where, at 16, Bergoglio had said he first heard the call to the priesthood.
āHe was a father to us in Flores,ā said Gabriela Lucero, 66, as she rose for morning Mass in the Basilica of San Jose de Flores. āHis primary philosophy was that those church doors remain open to everyone, immigrants, the poor, the struggling, everyone.ā
Grief in poor Argentine neighborhoods
With Milei declaring a week of mourning and lowering flags to half-staff, across the country. But nowhere was it more apparent than in the hardscrabble neighborhoods where Francis focused his outreach as archbishop.
His legacy can still be seen in the cadre of priests who have continued working, living and helping the poor in these districts long neglected by successive governments, where garbage spills onto sidewalks and the stench of sewage wafts over rutted dirt streets.
Residents of Villa 21-24, a neighborhood in southern Buenos Aires, grew emotional as they remembered Francis visiting regularly to share Argentinaās traditional herbal drink, with pious mothers and recovering cocaine addicts alike.
They said he led religious processions barefoot in the streets and helped grow their ramshackle church into a place of prayer and spiritual contemplation, a vibrant community center with a garden and a school.
āMost humble person in Buenos Airesā
āHe was the most humble person in all of Buenos Aires. Weāll never see a pope like him again," said Sara Benitez Fernandez, 57, a devout member of the congregation in the district. She choked on her tears as she recalled how he always took the subway and walked, never arriving in a car.
"I have no words, it hurts so much, so much,ā she said.
The leader of the church, the Rev. Lorenzo de Vedia, a charismatic, disheveled priest known to most simply as Padre Toto, said the death of his close friend and mentor on Monday left him with a swell of sorrow and whirlwind of other feelings.
āIt's a day of pain, but we're not losing the spirit,ā he said, as squealing children chased each other outside the rectory. āWe carry on and we fulfill his legacy. We're going ahead with the mission that he entrusted to us.ā
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Associated Press videojournalist Victor Caivano in Buenos Aires, Argentina, contributed to this report.
Isabel Debre, The Associated Press
