President may meet Bergoglio at the UN General Assembly summit to be held in September
ASUNCIÓN – President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner joined Pope Francis for Mass in Paraguay yesterday on the last leg of the papal South American tour — the sixth time she has met with the pontiff since he was elected to lead the Vatican.
CFK was the only foreign leader in attendance for the Mass at the military base of Nu Guasú, before the pontiff later flew back to Rome after his politically-charged visit to the region, which also took in Bolivia and Ecuador.
At the conclusion of the event, CFK ascended to the altar and gave the pope a gift — a particularly Peronist gift too— of a frame holding a 50-year-old newspaper cutting detailing a prayer the late pope John XXIII offered for Eva Duarte de Perón’s good health.
The pontiff affectionately greeted the president from a majestic altar that was made in homage to the Jesuits and Guaraní indigenous people. Jorge Bergoglio was a Peronist sympathizer in his youth.
The president had watched the hour-and-a-half long ceremony, including the homily and Angelus, in a front row seat alongside Paraguayan President Horacio Cartes, who had extended an invitation to CFK due to the Pope’s visit.
On Saturday night, CFK arrived in Asunción, accompanied by Deputy Foreign Minister Eduardo Zuaín, Chief-of-Staff Eduardo “Wado” de Pedro, and the Argentine ambassador to the Vatican, Eduardo Valdés.
The Argentine government officials weren’t alone. An estimated 154,000 people crossed the border with Paraguay over the past few days, according to the National Migration Directorate. Although these numbers were higher than normal, they were less than previous estimates. CFK was visibly emotional when entering the Nu Guasú camp, where she was greeted by thousands of Argentines and Paraguayans.
Hours before flying to Paraguay, Fernández de Kirchner criticized how major newspapers interpreted a telegram the Pope had sent over when he was flying over Argentine airspace, stating that “what the Pope writes and thinks is being manipulated.” It was a thinly veiled criticism of conservative newspaper La Nación, which said Francis had sent a message in times of increasing tension between the government and opposition leaders for the appointment of substitute judges.
The president did not comment on her sixth meeting with the pope yesterday.
Pope Francis visit
Before arriving in Paraguay, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church had visited Ecuador and Bolivia as part of his South American tour. In the Pope’s homily, which was watched by thousands of people, he highlighted hospitality as one of the key themes in the Christian religion emphasizing that it was one of the fundamental characteristics of a community of faith.
Francis has spent much of the past week railing about the injustices of the global capitalist system that he says idolizes money over people, demanding instead a new economic model where the world resources are distributed equally among all. This has been a main theme on his South American trip, which he reinforced in the last part of his trip.
Past CFK-Pope meetings
Fernández de Kirchner has met with the pontiff frequently since he was elected over two years ago.
The first meeting the president held with Francis was in March of 2013, days after he was appointed.
This was followed by a second in Brazil for World Catholic Youth Day, in July of the same year, where she was accompanied by Lomas de Zamora Mayor Martín Insaurralde, who was then heading the ruling Victory Front (FpV) ticket for Lower House of Congress for the midterms. During their meeting in Brazil, Francis gave a present to CFK for her grandson Néstor Iván. The third meeting was held in March 2014, followed by a fourth in Vatican City, in September 2014.
Yesterday was not the first time “Wado” de Pedro travelled along with CFK to meet the pope. In September last year, the current chief-of-staff arrived at the Holy See with a group of members of La Cámpora, the Kirchnerite youth organization headed by the president’s eldest son, Máximo Kirchner. Then Kirchnerite lawmaker Andrés “Cuervo” Larroque gave Francis a La Cámpora T-shirt and also brought along a portrait of a Peronist icon, father Carlos Mugica, killed in 1974 by the Triple A paramilitary organization. The pontiff was photographed with a T-shirt emblazoned with a La Cámpora inscription and the members of the group headed by the president’s son promised to go on a pilgrimage on December 8 to the Luján basilica, which was seen as a sign that old rancours had been left behind. Long gone are the years when the president and her late husband Néstor Kirchner shunned attending the Te-Deum ceremonies held at the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Cathedral by Bergoglio, due to his criticism to the Kirchnerite administration.
The fifth meeting between CFK and the Pope took place less than two months ago at the Vatican. The president said they did not discuss domestic politics but talked about foreign affairs. Francis has also said that he did not want to meet candidates in an electoral year.
In what remains of her tenure, the president has potentially one or two more chances to meet with Pope Francis again, as she has been invited to join his planned trips to Cuba and the United States, which are scheduled to take place between September 19-22.
Herald staff
Source: Buenos Aires Herald