Why Did Pope Francis Never Return to Argentina?

As Argentines bid farewell to Pope Francis, the grief of the faithful has been deepened by a lingering sorrow, a question that has hung in the Buenos Aires air: Why did their native son never return home?

“I have to be honest, I didn’t like that he never came to Argentina,” Laura Aguirre, 50, a bakery cashier, said after attending a Mass honoring the first Latin American pontiff hours after his death.

Outside the Basílica de San José de Flores, just blocks from Francis’s childhood home in Buenos Aires, and the church where he said he first felt the calling to the priesthood, many speculated that avoiding politics was why Argentina was not among the 68 countries he visited during his 12-year papacy, even though every president and local Catholic leaders extended invitations.

“He didn’t want any president to wrap themselves in his cloak, to say ‘I’m the one who brought the pope’,” said Sebastián Morales, 37.

Francis certainly had a tense relationship with Argentine presidents during his papacy.

As archbishop of Buenos Aires, he clashed with former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner over the legalization of same-sex marriage, though the two reconciled when he became pope. He also disapproved of some right-leaning policies of another former president, Mauricio Macri. And, in 2020, he vehemently opposed the legalization of abortion pushed through Congress by President Alberto Fernández.

Argentina’s current leader, Javier Milei, frequently insulted the pope before being elected president, calling him an “imbecile” because of Francis’s defense of social justice. He later apologized and the two met at the Vatican last year. Mr. Milei plans to attend Francis’s funeral on Saturday.