Pope Francis, the Argentine pontiff, never returned home

By Lucila Sigal

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentines long waited for Pope Francis to visit the homeland he left in 2013 to become the head of the Roman Catholic Church. With his death on Monday at the age of 88 after a long illness, those hopes for his return end unrealized.

The Vatican announced that Pope Francis, the first Latin American pontiff, who shook up the Catholic Church, had died after he battled a bout of double pneumonia that had hospitalized him for weeks before he was discharged on March 23.

Francis made more than 45 international trips during his papacy, including the first by any pope to Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Myanmar, North Macedonia, Bahrain and Mongolia. 

But the one-time Archbishop of Buenos Aires never returned to Argentina, where he divided opinion but gained the moniker of the "slum pope" for his focus on the poor and spending time in the capital's tough urban neighborhoods, or 'villas'.

"One of the great curiosities of his papacy was the fact that, unlike his predecessors, Francis never visited his native country," Jimmy Burns, author of the 2015 biography "Francis, Pope of Good Promise", told Reuters weeks before his death.

Burns said he believed Francis did not want to be seen siding either with the left-leaning Peronists or the conservatives in the country's polarized political environment.

"Any visit would try and be exploited by one side or the other, and he would unwittingly fuel those divisions," he said.

Many in Argentina anticipated a visit to the country shortly after Francis took office and visited Brazil. There was again chatter about a trip last year. But in both cases the visit never materialized.

Guillermo Marco, spokesman for the pope when he was Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio in Buenos Aires, told Reuters it had been a "wasted opportunity" for Argentina. Francis, he said, had a "tango soul" - a reference to the music and dance that has its origins in the back streets of Buenos Aires.

"He would have liked to (come) if he could have made a simple trip, let's say, where he came to visit the people he loves and, I don't know, celebrate a mass for the people," said Marco, who retained a close relationship with Francis.

In September last year, the pope had told journalists he had wanted to go to Argentina, saying "they are my people," but that "various matters had to be resolved first".

'THE CHORUS IS DIVIDED'

During his papacy, Argentina was rocked by repeat economic crises and political volatility.

The current government is led by President Javier Milei, who has helped stabilize the economy but implemented tough austerity measures. Milei once called Francis the devil's representative on Earth, though patched things up after coming into office.

"It is with profound sorrow that I learned this sad morning that Pope Francis, Jorge Bergoglio, passed away today and is now resting in peace," Milei wrote on social media platform X.

Some said Francis should have visited regardless of the political environment.

"The chorus is divided. There are those who say that he should have come anyway because it would have helped close the political rift a little," said Sergio Rubin, Argentine journalist and co-author of papal biography "The Jesuit".

Rogelio Pfirter, ambassador to the Vatican from 2016 to 2019 and a one-time student of Bergoglio at a Jesuit school in Argentina, said Francis' drive to boost inclusivity in the Church had always been the pope's priority.

"I have no doubt that everything Argentine and the homeland itself is something that has a special place in his mind and in his heart," he said. But one of the pope's greatest legacies has been "making a papacy for everyone," said Pfirter.

Many of Argentina's faithful would have liked to welcome Francis home and remember him as Bergoglio, born in 1936 in Buenos Aires to Italian immigrants.

"I'm very sad. Sometimes I ask (in prayer) why didn't he return to see his children?" said 83-year-old Buenos Aires resident Rita Hernandez, citing other trips the pope made to the region.

"I feel a pain. It's as if he had walked past the patio of his house but never came in."

(Reporting by Lucila Sigal; Additional reporting by Horacio Soria and Lucinda Elliott; Editing by Adam Jourdan, Rosalba O'Brien and Janet Lawrence)