Pope visits struggling Argentine home for people with disabilities to press economic message

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Pope Leo XIV doubled down Monday on his call for Argentina to look out for the weakest and most vulnerable as he visited a home for people with disabilities in a symbolically powerful rebuke of President Javier Milei’s austerity measures.

On his first full day in Argentina, Leo made a pilgrimage to the Cottolengo Don Orione in the suburb of Claypole, south of the capital. The institution, founded by an Italian priest in 1935, shelters over 400 vulnerable people with disabilities across its 50 hectares (123 acres).

The center, known as the “city of charity,” has been severely impacted by Milei’s austerity measures, which have hit the healthcare and social service sector hard. Milei has taken his signature chain saw to specialized therapy programs that for decades have represented a lifeline for many of the estimated 5 million Argentines with disabilities, freezing payments and dismantling a vital safety net.

Combined with inflation, the center has reported extreme economic distress and Leo’s visit comes just days before the Senate takes up a disability funding bill that Milei opposes.

The visit kicked off a busy day for Leo in which the American pope, fulfilling the unfinished legacy of Argentine Pope Francis, is emphasizing Catholic social teaching that calls for putting the weakest and most vulnerable at the center of economic policy.

Upon arrival Sunday and with Milei at his side, Leo cited Francis’ frequent refrain that money must serve and not rule: “The economy must serve the person, not the person the economy,” Leo said in his first speech in Argentina.

It’s a message Leo is expected to repeat later Monday when he meets with business leaders, union representatives and leaders of popular movements at the Catholic University of Argentina.

Among those invited are domestic manufacturers battered by cheap imports since Milei scrapped long-standing trade barriers, and members of Argentina’s largest labor confederation, who took their worries over job losses and shrinking wages to the Vatican in September.

Since Milei took office in late 2023, his austerity agenda has made him an icon of the global conservative backlash against the liberal establishment. Much like its allies in the Trump administration, his government has portrayed the cuts to disability programs as part of a reform process aimed at eliminating fraud and waste in the federal bureaucracy.

For many Argentines, the highlight of the day was to be Leo’s late-morning Mass at the “Monumento a los Españoles” that was expected to draw as many as 2 million people. It's the very same venue where, nearly 40 years ago, St. John Paul II became the last pontiff to celebrate Mass in the South American country.

Thousands of people arrived at midnight to secure a better spot for the Mass, Leo’s first in Argentina.

“We were dating when John Paul II visited 40 years ago,” recalled Teresa Videla, 63, who was accompanied by her husband and youngest son. “And now it’s very special for us to come back and see the visiting pope. So much has happened in the world, in the country, and we now have six children and 15 grandchildren.”

Leo has been welcomed by huge and adoring crowds in Buenos Aires, the second stop of his three-nation tour of South America.

Late Sunday, groups of faithful chanting “Pope Leo, Pope Leo,” and “Long live the pope” gathered in front of the Vatican's embassy, or nunciature, where Leo is staying. A smiling Leo stepped outside to greet them and offered his blessing.

—-

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Pope Leo XIV, left, meets with President Javier Milei at Casa Rosada in Buenos Aires, on the third day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Sunday, Nov. 8, 2026. (Tiziana Fabi/Pool Photo via AP)

An image of Pope Leo XIV is projected onto the Obelisk on the day of the pontiff's arrival in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sunday, Nov. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

An image of Pope Leo XIV is projected onto the Obelisk on the day of his arrival in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sunday, Nov. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Worshippers sleep while awaiting a Mass to be celebrated by Pope Leo XIV at the Monumento de los Españoles in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Monday, Nov. 9, 2026.. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Pope Leo XIV shakes hands with Argentina's President Javier Milei as he meets authorities, civil society and the diplomatic corps at Palacio Libertad in Buenos Aires, on the third day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Sunday, Nov. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

For the first time since February, Russian, Ukrainian and U.S. negotiators are scheduled to hold talks on ending the full-scale war that is nearing the five-year mark, with security guarantees topping the agenda.

The two-day session starting Tuesday in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, follows previous negotiations early this year that failed to produce any visible progress toward ending Europe’s most devastating conflict since World War II.

The talks follow last month's localized truce around the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky in southern Ukraine that was brokered with the help of U.S. first lady Melania Trump and allowed the evacuation of some of its residents and the delivery of desperately needed humanitarian supplies.

But even as Moscow and Kyiv touted the weeklong ceasefire as a positive model, fierce fighting has continued along the 1,200-kilometer (750-mile) front line. Both sides also have escalated their long-range attacks on each other with drones and missiles.

Russia has intensified its strikes on Ukraine’s power system, seeking to undermine the country’s resolve as winter sets in. Moscow has relied on ballistic missiles and new, faster jet-powered drones, taking advantage of Ukraine’s shortage of U.S.-made Patriot interceptors.

A look at the talks and what's on the agenda:

Russia and Ukraine remain far apart on key elements of any prospective peace deal.

Russian President Vladimir Putin wants Ukraine to pull its troops back from the four regions that Moscow illegally annexed in September 2022 but never fully captured. He also demands that Ukraine abandon its bid to join NATO, accept strict limits on its military and drop restrictions on the Russian language and the Moscow-affiliated Orthodox Church in Ukraine.

Putin wants a comprehensive peace deal on those conditions and won't agree to a general halt in hostilities, arguing such a pause would only allow Ukrainian troops to rest and replenish their weapons stockpiles.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy rejects Putin’s demands to voluntarily cede territory Russia has not been able to take on the battlefield and agree to limits on the military and arrangements with Western partners, which it sees as essential security guarantees to stop Moscow from invading again.

Ukraine argues that an immediate ceasefire is the first step toward negotiating a wider settlement and says a direct meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy is the only way territorial issues can be settled.

Russia and Ukraine said the talks will focus on security guarantees.

Zelenskyy noted that Ukraine and its allies have discussed security guarantees similar to NATO’s Article 5, which states the alliance sees an attack on one of its members as an attack against all.

In a Nov. 5 interview, he said Ukraine's security guarantees boil down to what Western allies would do if Russia launches a new invasion of his country. “If Russia starts again, what will happen?” Zelenskyy asked. “Who will do what, with what means, and when?”

Some European nations have mulled a possible deployment of their troops to Ukraine after a prospective peace deal. Russia rejects that as a nonstarter, warning it would view any European troops on Ukrainian soil as legitimate targets.

The Kremlin insists any prospective deal should also offer security guarantees for Russia. Just before Moscow launched the all-out invasion in 2022, it demanded that NATO roll back its deployments in the alliance's member countries in Central and Eastern Europe, seeing their presence as a security threat. Similar demands will likely be part of any comprehensive peace deal proposed by Russia.

U.S. President Donald Trump said in a “60 Minutes” interview broadcast Sunday that Moscow and Kyiv are “very close” to a deal but added that “they’re going to end up with a little bit different shape Ukraine.”

He also declared after meeting Putin's envoy Kirill Dmitriev Nov. 4 at the White House that some kind of grand deal about European security was in the works, although he did not elaborate.

“It’s going to be a big agreement and it’s going to involve more than Ukraine,” Trump said, adding that it might include all of Europe.

Ukraine insists its European allies must have a seat at the negotiating table, while Russia opposes any such involvement at this stage.

“No one is going to invite them to the negotiating table,” Kremlin foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov snapped when asked if European envoys could join the Abu Dhabi talks. He added that if they fly there, they won't be allowed into the room.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Europeans would need to be involved in broader negotiations but only later.

“Since the discussion will touch upon the future security architecture in Europe while addressing the mutual security of Russia and Ukraine, at some stage it would be impossible to do it without the Europeans,” he said.

On Oct. 27, Finland’s President Alexander Stubb and Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre spoke by phone with Putin in their first known direct conversation since shortly after the 2022 invasion. They said they spoke in their capacity as the heads of Russia's Nordic neighbors and not on behalf of the European Union, which has struggled to pick a negotiator with Moscow.

Peskov sarcastically noted that EU members “can’t even decide yet who is authorized to speak on their behalf,” calling it “a protracted indecisiveness and a lack of readiness on its part.”

On Nov. 4, Zelenskyy said in a post on X that he had held a 90-minute conversation with U.S. negotiators Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, saying the talks “must move forward at full throttle to bring this war to an end as quickly as possible.”

Kushner said on X that “our objective is to develop practical arrangements that address the security concerns of all sides, reduce the risk of future conflict, and create a more stable and predictable security environment.”

For over 30 years, “Europe and Russia have struggled to establish a sustainable security framework,” Kushner wrote. “Decades of mistrust, competing security concerns, and the devastating consequences of this war make this an extraordinarily difficult challenge, but one that is essential to lasting peace.”

He noted the main goals of the talks were “permanent security consultations, reliable crisis communications, greater military transparency, reciprocal measures to reduce escalation risks, and an enduring framework for long-term European security and stability.”

Putin aide Vladimir Medinsky, who led Russia’s delegation in the first direct peace talks with Ukraine in Istanbul in March 2022 and in subsequent sessions, remains Moscow’s chief negotiator.

A former culture minister who wrote books about purported Western plots against Russia over the centuries, Medinsky is known for his hard-line views and blustery statements. At the 2025 talks, also in Istanbul, he reportedly said it took Peter the Great 21 years to defeat Sweden in the 18th century and Moscow was now ready to fight as long as it takes.

The Russian team also includes deputy foreign ministers Sergei Ryabkov and Mikhail Galuzin, military intelligence chief Igor Kostyukov and deputy chief of the General Staff's operational department Yuri Zhigarlovsky.

Ukraine’s delegation is led by Rustem Umerov, head of the country’s Foreign Intelligence Service, who attended earlier talks. It also reportedly includes Zelenskyy’s chief of staff Kyrylo Budanov, his deputy Sergiy Kyslytsya, chief of the general staff Andrii Hnatov and Davyd Arakhamia, parliamentary faction leader of Zelenskyy's Servant of the People party.

A family member cries beside the coffins of Viktor Fomenko, Natalia Karapetian and Andrii Anikin, killed in a Russian airstrike that destroyed an underground school in Komyshuvakha, during a farewell ceremony in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Saturday, Nov. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Black crows circle above the statue of Archangel Michael, Kyiv's patron saint, during blackouts caused by Russian air attacks on Ukraine's energy system in central Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

In this photo provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, an Orthodox Christian monastery is damaged following Russian aerial guided bomb strikes that killed at least 43 in Komyshuvakha, Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, right, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attend a press conference in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Firefighters walk at the site of a destroyed warehouse after a Russian drone attack in Sofiivska Borshchahivka, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)