Argentine President Javier Milei said in an interview on Monday with Italian media that he had “reconsidered some positions” on Pope Francis following their meeting at the Vatican on Monday morning local time.
Milei’s extensive meeting with the pope marked a new chapter in their once-fraught relationship in which Milei, a Catholic considering a conversion to Judaism, referred to the head of the Catholic Church as an “imbecile.”
Argentine newspaper La Nación reported on Monday that it had obtained a preview of an interview Milei gave to Italy’s TV Retequattro after his meeting with Pope Francis. In the interview, set to air on Monday night in Italy, Milei described Pope Francis as “the most important person in all of Argentina.”
“One of the things I have realized recently is that the pope is the most important Argentine person in the whole of Argentina, he’s the leader of Catholics in the world,” Milei told TV Retequattro.
“I reconsidered some positions and, from that moment on, we started to build a positive bond,” he continued.
Vatican sources described the meeting, which reportedly lasted about an hour, as “very good and very friendly.” Milei and Pope Francis reportedly discussed Argentina’s politics and the precarious state of its economy, among other issues.
The encounter not only served to formally mend the relationship between Milei and the pope, but it also marked the longest amount of time Pope Francis has spent in a meeting with an Argentine head of state. The pope’s meetings with former Presidents Cristina Kirchner, Mauricio Macri, and Alberto Fernández were shorter than his encounter with Milei.
Milei and Pope Francis exchanged gifts. Milei chose to give Pope Francis a copy of a handwritten letter from late Chancellor José María Gutiérrez to late Argentine diplomat Juan Bautista Alberdi dated 1854, in which he was accredited as representative to Europe, as well as a picture of the commemorative postcard of Mama Antula, Argentina’s first female saint canonized by the pope on Sunday. Additionally, Milei gifted the Pope with Argentine alfajores, a staple cookie stuffed with dulce de leche, and what is reportedly the pope’s favorite brand of lemon cookies.
Pope Francis presented Milei with a bronze medallion inspired by the Baldachin of St. Peter, volumes of papal documents, and a copy of this year’s Message for Peace.
On Sunday, during the canonization of Mama Antula, Milei and Pope Francis shared a fraternal hug.
During his career as a cable news fixture, Milei, a libertarian economist, had issued harsh criticisms of Pope Francis. In one such comment, dated November 2020, Milei, during a fierce condemnation of socialism and communism, criticized Pope Francis over his defense of “social justice.”
“Envy is a capital sin. It would be necessary to inform the imbecile who is in Rome [Pope Francis] and defends social justice to know that it is theft and that it goes against the commandments, that envy, which is the basis of social justice, is a capital sin and an aberration,” Milei said.
“I am going to say it up front, the pope is the representative of the evil one on Earth occupying the throne of the house of God,” he continued. “Did you know that the pope promotes communism with all the disasters it caused and that goes against the Holy Scriptures?”
Milei issued a public apology over his past comments in October amidst Argentina’s 2023 presidential campaign.
The relationship between Milei and Pope Francis began to mend shortly after Milei’s victory in the November 19 presidential election. At the time, Milei and Pope Francis held a “pleasant” telephone conversation that marked their first encounter.
The Argentine president’s meeting with Pope Francis was the first of three official engagements that wrapped up Milei’s first international tour on Monday and was followed by separate private encounters with Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and President Sergio Mattarella.
Although no relevant information was confirmed following Monday’s meeting with Milei, Pope Francis has previously expressed his intention to visit his homeland Argentina during the second half of 2024.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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