UPDATE — 18:30 Bogotá, Wednesday, Nov. 11 (6:30 p.m. Lima): Pope Leo XIV is in Peru. His Aerolíneas Argentinas Airbus A330-200 landed at the Grupo Aéreo N.° 8 air base in Callao at 5:02 p.m. local time — about half an hour ahead of the 5:30 p.m. time in the official schedule and in the earlier version of this article — after a three-and-a-half-hour flight from Buenos Aires, Andina reported in its live coverage. The pope came down the steps at 5:33 p.m. and was received at the foot of the plane by President Keiko Fujimori and Foreign Minister Carlos Espá. At 5:48 p.m. he left the base with a large entourage for central Lima, travelling in a closed vehicle along avenues Faucett, La Marina, Sucre and Brasil to the María Auxiliadora basilica in Breña, where he was due to switch to the popemobile for the run to the Plaza de Armas, Infobae reported. The official welcome ceremony at the Government Palace is scheduled for 6:15 p.m., followed at 6:45 p.m. by his meeting with Fujimori; at 7:45 p.m. he is due at the Gran Teatro Nacional in San Borja for his first address to state authorities, civil society and the diplomatic corps. He will spend the night at the Apostolic Nunciature in Jesús María. The six-day visit runs until Monday, Nov. 16, and continues on Friday in Chiclayo and Pimentel.
UPDATE — 12:35 Bogotá, Wednesday, Nov. 11 (2:35 p.m. Buenos Aires): Pope Leo XIV has left Argentina. The pope boarded an Aerolíneas Argentinas flight at Ezeiza International Airport after a farewell ceremony at the foot of the plane, where President Javier Milei said goodbye to him, La Nación reported. The flight departed at 2 p.m. local time — noon in Bogotá — bound for Lima, where Leo XIV is due to land at 5:30 p.m. local time at the Callao Naval Air Base and be welcomed at the Government Palace. Earlier, he closed his four-day Argentine visit with a final Mass at the Basilica of Our Lady of Luján, telling the crowd, “Argentina, rise up and walk,” and thanking Argentines: “Thank you for welcoming me with open arms. I felt at home.” The Buenos Aires provincial government put the Luján crowd at more than 3.5 million people; Governor Axel Kicillof welcomed the pope at the basilica, while Milei, who also skipped the Córdoba Mass, waited at Ezeiza, La Nación reported.
UPDATE — 11:50 Bogotá, Wednesday, Nov. 11 (1:50 p.m. Buenos Aires): After the Luján Mass, Pope Leo XIV travelled to Ezeiza for the official farewell ceremony, where President Javier Milei and his sister Karina Milei are heading the send-off, ahead of the papal plane's 2 p.m. departure for Lima, Ámbito reported. Airspace around Ezeiza and Aeroparque is closed from 1 to 3 p.m. local time, affecting flights in that window, La Nación reported. In Peru, he is due to land at the Callao naval air base at 5:30 p.m. local time, with a welcome ceremony at the Government Palace at 6:15 p.m. His Peru visit runs through Monday, Nov. 16, with stops in Lima, Callao, Chiclayo, Santa Cruz de Succhabamba, Cusco and Pucallpa, before he flies back to Rome, Ámbito reported.
UPDATE — 09:45 Bogotá, Wednesday, Nov. 11 (11:45 a.m. Buenos Aires): Pope Leo XIV closed his visit to Argentina on Wednesday with a final Mass before more than two million people at the Basilica of Our Lady of Luján, where he called on Argentines to reconcile and told them, "Argentina, rise up and walk." Earlier in the morning he visited the Devoto federal prison in Buenos Aires, meeting the 69 people still housed there before the prison closes. He is due to be farewelled at Ezeiza airport at 1:30 p.m. local time and fly to Lima at 2 p.m., starting the Peru leg of his tour. Details below.
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina.- Pope Leo XIV closed the third day of his visit to Argentina with two of the largest gatherings of his pontificate in a single day: a morning Mass for about 650,000 people in Córdoba and a youth vigil before more than a million people in Buenos Aires on Tuesday, El País reported. The vigil, at the Monumento de los Españoles in the Palermo parks, was the one activity the Pope himself specifically asked the Argentine Church to organize.
The day began 700 kilometres away, in the central province of Córdoba, where the Pope celebrated Mass on the grounds of the Argentine Aircraft Factory (FAdeA). He landed in Córdoba at about 9 a.m. and toured the esplanade in the popemobile before taking the altar, while many of the faithful who had travelled overnight could only follow him on one of the 50 giant screens installed at the site. About 650,000 people attended, according to the authorities, El País reported; the Vatican gave the same figure, Al Jazeera reported. Local newspaper La Voz reported that one person died after falling ill at the Córdoba gathering.
A morning Mass for 650,000 in Córdoba
In his homily, Leo XIV held up the Argentine saints José Gabriel del Rosario Brochero, known as Cura Brochero, and María Antonia de Paz y Figueroa, known as Mama Antula, as models of a faith lived in everyday life, and called the faithful to "go and be saints." Both saints are especially venerated in Argentina's interior, and thousands of pilgrims had travelled hundreds of kilometres to Córdoba, camping outdoors overnight to wait for the Pope.
After the Mass, the Pope met privately with a group of 20 people linked to Argentina's human rights movement, in his first approach to the cause since arriving in the country. Among them was Alba Camargo, the daughter and niece of people who disappeared during the military dictatorship that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983, and herself a child survivor of that regime. Camargo handed Leo XIV a letter from the daughter of Sonia Torres, a leading figure of the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo, and asked him to name the disappeared, in the hope that his words would move those who know something about the crimes to come forward, El País reported.
A million young people in Palermo
Hours later, Leo XIV was back in Buenos Aires. He landed at Aeroparque at 6:10 p.m. and reached the Monumento de los Españoles in the popemobile shortly after 8 p.m., advancing slowly through the crowd along Avenida del Libertador. The vigil began at 8:15 p.m. and ran for about two hours, closing at around 10 p.m.
More than a million people attended, according to official figures cited by Infobae; organizers estimated the crowd at more than 1.3 million. The gathering was aimed at young people aged 15 to 35, who had been arriving since midday with Argentine and Vatican flags, and it was organized by the Argentine Episcopal Conference at the Pope's own request — the only activity he specifically asked for during the trip.
Music opened the evening from 4 p.m., with performances by Nahuel Pennisi, Maggie Cullen and Valentino Merlo, and priests were available in reconciliation tents for confessions. The Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Jorge García Cuerva, welcomed the Pope and told him the young people had come "from every corner of our vast country to tell you about their struggles and their hopes," warning that poverty, loneliness, addiction, uncertainty about the future and lack of work stalk "the blessed homeland of bread."
Four young people then shared their stories with the Pope: their struggles with drugs, their work with people in need, and the difficulty of living their faith day to day. The first testimony came from Agustín Cristian Schinca, 25, who spoke about his recovery from addiction. Another came from Agustina, a young woman from Buenos Aires who has tutored children in poor neighbourhoods since she was 16 and a year ago moved to Viedma to work with children from across the country, inspired by Saint Nazaria Ignacia and her motto "Adelante, siempre adelante" — "Forward, always forward." She asked the Pope how to face the frustration of helping and still seeing some children lost. "I understand what you feel, I know it is hard, but don't lose hope," he answered, Infobae reported.
"Do not kneel before the idols of our time"
In his address, the Pope warned the young crowd about what he called "the idols of our time": "success at any price, money, obsession with appearance, popularity or the unrestrained pursuit of pleasure." He added that chasing the approval of others can lead people "to lie, betray or humiliate someone on social media," and that there are those who profit "by offering pleasures that end up enslaving us, like pornography and various substances."
"Do not kneel before that which cannot give you life!" he told them. "And if you have ever fallen, get up! Do not let anything or anyone take away the freedom God has given you," La Opinión Austral reported.
The loudest ovation of the night came when Leo XIV quoted his Argentine predecessor, Pope Francis. "Everyone, everyone, everyone," he said, inviting the young people to come closer to the Catholic Church: "To each one I would like to say: there is a place for you in the Church! With your questions, your wounds and your story. This is also your home." He closed by handing them the second half of his visit's motto: "At the start I told you: 'Welcome, everyone!' Now I entrust you with the second part of our motto: 'Go and proclaim!'"
The crowd answered with the chant "¡Olé, olé, olé, León, León!" after the Pope thanked them for their welcome: "What a wonderful reception. A welcome that perhaps only Argentina can give. Thank you."
A farewell Mass for more than two million in Luján
On Wednesday morning, Leo XIV began his final day in Argentina at the Devoto federal prison in Buenos Aires, where he met 69 people deprived of their liberty — the last inmates housed there before the federal prison closes, Infobae reported.
He then travelled to Luján for the Mass of Charity in front of the Basilica of Our Lady of Luján, patroness of Argentina. The Pope arrived in the popemobile shortly after 10 a.m. local time and walked the last stretch to the altar on foot, like a pilgrim, as the Mass began at 10 a.m. (1 p.m. GMT), Perfil reported.
More than two million faithful attended, according to preliminary estimates by the Buenos Aires provincial government, cited by the Vatican; some Argentine outlets put the crowd at more than 2.5 million, EFE reported. About 7,500 invited guests sat in the reserved area, including delegations from Caritas Argentina and the Hogares de Cristo, and more than 800 musicians performed, among them Abel Pintos and Luciano Pereyra.
In his homily, the Pope called on Argentines to reconcile and to put love first. "Argentina, rise up and walk," he told the crowd, and urged them to overcome divisions, accompany those most in need and build a future of hope, Diario Panorama reported. He spoke of poverty, lack of work, illness and family conflict, and recalled that his pontificate began on May 8, the feast of Our Lady of Luján. Buenos Aires Governor Axel Kicillof, Vice-Governor Verónica Magario, lawmaker Máximo Kirchner and former economy minister Sergio Massa were among those in attendance.
What comes next
The Buenos Aires vigil was the most festive event of the visit so far, and it came at the same site where, 36 hours earlier, the Pope had drawn 2.5 million people to his first Mass in the country. The visit is the first by a Pope to Argentina in nearly 40 years, and it is the second leg of Leo XIV's 12-day tour of South America, which began in Uruguay on November 6 and ends in Peru on November 17. The 71-year-old pontiff is travelling less than a month after lung surgery, Al Jazeera reported.
After the Mass, Leo XIV was due to be farewelled at Ezeiza International Airport at 1:30 p.m. local time and fly to Lima at 2 p.m., starting the third leg of his 12-day South American tour, which ends in Peru on November 17, Diario El Norte reported.
Lea también: Pope Leo XIV Tells Milei 'The Economy Must Serve the Person' on First Papal Visit to Argentina in 39 Years y Pope Leo XIV Begins 12-Day Trip to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru Three Weeks After Lung Cancer Surgery.
Sources: Andina, 11 November 2026; Infobae (Peru), 11 November 2026; El País, 11 November 2026; Infobae, 11 November 2026; La Opinión Austral, 10 November 2026; OSV News via The Trenton Monitor, 10 November 2026; Al Jazeera, 10 November 2026; Infobae (Luján), 11 November 2026; EFE via ABC, 11 November 2026; Perfil, 11 November 2026; Diario Panorama, 11 November 2026; Diario El Norte, 11 November 2026; La Nación (video), 11 November 2026; La Nación (Luján), 11 November 2026. Cover photo: Pope Leo XIV greets the crowd from the popemobile during the Mass in Córdoba, Argentina, Nov. 10, 2026. Photo: Gedankenstuecke via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0; Argentine flag added by The Wire Post.