Pope Francis and the President of Argentina, Javier Miley, they greeted and hugged each other today after the canonization of the first Argentine saint, ending an electoral period in which the current president disqualified the pontiff, calling him “the representative of evil on Earth.”

As soon as the Eucharist ends in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, The pontiff was carried in a wheelchair due to problems with his knee, to the place where the politician followed the mass, to his right, in the first row in front of the one kneeling.

At that moment Miley shook his hand and even hugged him: They both talked for a while between laughs.

Francis presided over the canonization of ordained laywoman Maria Antonia de San José de Paz y Figueroa in St. Peter’s Basilica. known as “Mama Antula” and in his sermon he recalled the passage in which Jesus healed the leper, which is an example of modern misfits.

“Let us not think that these are simply things of the past. How many suffering people we find on the sidewalks of our cities! And how many fears, prejudices and contradictions even among those who believe and profess themselves Christians contribute to their further wounding! Besides, there is so much marginalization in our time, there are barriers that need to be broken down, “lepros” that need to be healed.” held.

In this sense, he called for “touching” those people who are already suffering not “reduce the world to the limits of our ‘well-being,’” he said.

“In these cases we must be careful, because the diagnosis is clear: this is “leprosy of the soul”; “A disease that makes us insensitive to love and compassion, that destroys us through a gangrene of selfishness, prejudice, indifference and intolerance,” he warned.

A few minutes earlier, the pontiff said the formula in Latin with which he raised “Mama Antula” to the altars, who is known for his hard social and religious work in the Argentine lands of the 18th century, before Spanish independence.

But he also valued his work for to preserve the legacy of the Society of Jesus, to which the Pope himself belongs after his expulsion from the Spanish crown by order of King Charles III.

This meeting between the first Argentine and Latin American pontiff and a far-right politician raised high expectations due to the latter’s attacks during the election campaign, when He called him “the representative of the evil one on Earth.”

However, his attacks stopped after his arrival at the Casa Rosada last December and just yesterday he spoke out on Radio Miter. his willingness to have a “very fruitful dialogue” with the Pope, whom he now considers “the most important Argentine in history”.

Bergoglio for his part He always underplayed his words and indeed, he called him to congratulate him on his victory.

Today, in addition to the final hug, they planned short and formal meeting before a Mass in the sacristy of St. Peter’s Basilica, about which no information was released.

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But the most anticipated moment will happen this Monday, starting at 9:00 local time (8:00 GMT), when Francisco will receive him in the Apostolic Palace behind closed doors.

As the president put forward, there will be other issues on the negotiating table Dad’s possible trip to his home countrywhere he has not returned since his election at the 2013 conclave.

Miley arrived in Rome from Israel accompanied by the President’s Secretary General, his sister Karina Miley, and his ministers of foreign affairs, home affairs and human capital, as well as his religious secretary and others.

But even if I am physically in the Eternal City, visiting the Colosseum or Michelangelo’s “Moses” or exchanging the “hot” numbers of the embassy for a hotel, His thoughts are on the other side of the ocean, in Argentina.

Last Tuesday the President suffered a setback when the Chamber of Deputies did not approve of the articles of his “Fundamentals of Law and Starting Points of Freedom”, known as the “omnibus bill”, a project whose purpose was to deregulate the economy and reduce the weight of the state.

(according to information from EFE)