Images: Francis with Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, holding traditional Argentine mate drinkware – By Casa Rosada (Argentina Presidency of the Nation), CC BY-SA 2.0, (Wikipedia)
As Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Jorge Mario Bergoglio had a complex and often tense relationship with Argentine presidents Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, characterized by political disagreements, public tension, and eventual reconciliation.
In 2004, during the First National Government holiday Mass at the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Cathedral, Bergoglio gave a homily in the presence of President Néstor Kirchner. He called for greater political dialogue, denounced intolerance, and criticized exhibitionism and strident political discourse. The following year, Kirchner opted not to attend the ceremony and instead celebrated the national holiday elsewhere. Consequently, the cathedral Mass was suspended entirely in 2005, reflecting the growing distance between the government and the Church under Bergoglio’s leadership.
In 2006, Bergoglio played a behind-the-scenes role in supporting Jesuit bishop Joaquín Piña, who successfully opposed an attempt to amend the constitution of Misiones Province. The proposed amendment would have allowed indefinite re-election of provincial governors, a move that was perceived as the first step in Néstor Kirchner’s broader ambition to alter the national constitution. The defeat of the amendment was a political setback for Kirchner, who increasingly came to view Bergoglio as a political adversary. The tension persisted until Kirchner died in 2010.
Bergoglio’s strained relations extended to Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, Néstor’s widow and successor as president. In 2008, amid large-scale protests in Argentina’s agricultural regions, Bergoglio called for national reconciliation, which the government interpreted as tacit support for anti-government demonstrators. Tensions escalated further during the debate over same-sex marriage legislation in 2010, where Bergoglio vocally opposed the measure, prompting further friction with the administration.
When Bergoglio was elected Pope Francis in March 2013, reactions in Argentina were mixed. While much of the public greeted the election with celebration, the pro-government newspaper Página 12 revived controversial allegations related to the Dirty War, and the head of the National Library, Horacio González, made claims suggestive of a global conspiracy theory. President Cristina Kirchner initially delayed her reaction, taking more than an hour to offer congratulations—and even then, doing so only as a brief aside during a routine speech.
However, the popularity of Pope Francis in Argentina led to what political analyst Claudio Fantini described as a “Copernican shift” in the government’s attitude. Cristina Kirchner subsequently embraced the new pope and made efforts to publicly reconcile. On the eve of his papal inauguration, Francis held a private meeting with President Kirchner, during which the two shared a meal and exchanged gifts. This marked Francis’s first meeting with a head of state, leading to widespread speculation that the formerly icy relationship had begun to thaw. Shortly afterward, Página 12 removed its previously published articles critical of Bergoglio from its website, reflecting this broader shift in tone.
References
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La Nación. (25 May 2004). “Bergoglio pidió diálogo y criticó la intolerancia”.
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Clarín. (25 May 2005). “El Gobierno no asistirá a la misa del 25”.
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Clarín. (30 October 2006). “Misiones dijo No a la reelección: triunfo del obispo Piña”.
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La Nación. (29 October 2010). “El conflicto entre Néstor Kirchner y Bergoglio”.
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Clarín. (14 March 2013). “La relación entre Cristina Kirchner y el nuevo Papa”.
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BBC Mundo. (18 March 2013). “Cristina Kirchner almuerza con el papa Francisco”.
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La Nación. (18 March 2013). “Francisco recibió a Cristina Kirchner en su primer encuentro con un jefe de Estado”.
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Infobae. (20 March 2013). “Página/12 borró de su web notas críticas al papa Francisco”.
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