Outpouring of prayer and love for ill Pope in his native Argentina

Eduardo Campos Lima/Crux• February 20, 2025

If the news regarding Pope Francis’s health problems is of concern to Catholics all over the globe, in Argentina it is especially troubling.

There has been a “wave of love” shown to the pontiff – as a bishop described it – over the past few days in the South American nation.

Gatherings and rosary prayers for the Pope’s recovery have been promoted all over Argentina, with everything organised very quickly.

Argentina’s Bishops’ Conference released a statement on 17 February asking “all communities to gather in prayer for Pope Francis’s health, asking the Lord to grant him a fast recovery”.

The invitation, which was signed by the conference’s president, Archbishop Marcelo Daniel Colombo of Mendoza, also asked for the intercession of Our Lady of Luján, the country’s patron saint.

“It was a matter of only 12 hours or so [for things to happen]. The next day, Masses were being celebrated in distinct parts of Argentina with that intention,” Father Leonardo Silio of the Diocese of Merlo-Moreno – on the outskirts of Buenos Aires – told Crux.

Silio co-celebrated with local Bishop Juan José Chaparro a Holy Mass, a rosary prayer and an eucharistic adoration in the diocese’s cathedral on 18 February.

“It was a great celebration. Of course, in the metropolitan area of Buenos Aires there has been an enormous commotion,” Silio added, alluding to the fact that the Holy Father was a bishop and then the archbishop of the capital city between 1992-2013.

Current Archbishop Jorge García Cuerva has scheduled a massive celebration for the Pope’s healing on 24 February at a major Buenos Aires square. García Cuerva also released a public letter he sent to Francis on 17 February.

“Along with all the Church that pilgrimages in Buenos Aires, we ask Jesus our Good Shepherd that he accompanies you in this phase of recovery, so you, strengthened, can keep serving the Church in the whole world in the exercise of the ministry that God himself entrusted you and that you, with so much love and dedication, [have] been putting forward,” the letter read.

García Cuerva concluded the document by saying that “in all celebrations of the Eucharist those days we will pray especially for your health and your intentions, entrusting you to the Holy Virgin”.

Bishop Sergio Buenanueva of San Francisco in the province of Cordoba, told Crux that people began to pray for the Pope spontaneously upon receiving news of his pneumonia.

“I’ve been celebrating the Mass at the cathedral every day over the past few days and it’s possible to notice the same people are there asking for the Pope,” he said.

Buenanueva told the priests of his diocese earlier this week to include the prayers for the pontiff in the intentions of all celebrations.

“People have a natural connection with him. They think: ‘He’s one of us, he came from this land, he was a priest and a bishop here and that’s how he arrived at Peter’s see’,” Buenanueva said.

But there’s also a dimension of faith, he added, “a perspective that goes beyond the Argentine Jorge Mario Bergoglio and identifies him [as] the vicar of Christ”.

He added: “That’s refreshing, because that’s how the Catholic Faith reactivates itself in an intense way among the Catholic communities and in our hearts. We’re praying for the vicar of Christ.”

Bishop Pedro Torres of Rafaela, in Santa Fé province, described how the Pope’s health has become a frequent theme of conversation among people on the streets over the past days.

“At first, some people didn’t believe that his case was so serious. But then the news on his pneumonia arrived and worried everybody. Prayers for him have been continuous,” Torres said.

He said people have been “tranquil”, praying for the Holy Father without despair, and that many appeared in the church to thank him for things he has done.

“There has been a wave of love for the Pope,” he said. “Gestures of people praying for him and offering something to help have been growing.”

Among the dioceses and ecclesial groups that have been praying for the Pope are the team of curas villeros – slum priests, who usually live and work in a poor community – and the Hogares de Cristo (Christ’s Homes) who work with drug users. Those groups, which used to have great closeness with the future pope in his Buenos Aires’ days, have been organising a triduum of Masses.

Father Leonardo Silio described how not just any pope but this specific pope is still needed.

“We need him to keep being our voice, especially now that we live such difficult times, with war and injustices,” the priest said.

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Photo: A woman touches a portrait of Pope Francis during a Mass at the Basilica San Jose de Flores to pray for his health, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 19 February 2025. (Photo by JUAN MABROMATA/AFP via Getty Images.)