Pope Francis remembered in Buenos Aires as ‘guiding light’ for Argentine Church

Catholics marched in a caravan through Barrio Flores section of Buenos Aires, Argentina, April 11, 2026, Pope Francis's birthplace. The late pope remains beloved in poor neighborhoods where he prioritized church attention as archbishop of Buenos Aires. Pope Francis, formerly Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, died April 21, 2025, at age 88. (OSV News photo/David Agren)
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (OSV News) — María Rico ambled along a busy Buenos Aires boulevard as part of a caravan through Barrio Flores — the childhood neighbourhood of the late Pope Francis — to commemorate the first anniversary of the Argentine pontiff’s death.
A Neighborhood Remembers
Rico, 66, recalled first meeting the future pope while he was a Jesuit priest. She fondly remembered him returning later as the then-Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires routinely visited her modest barrio, or district, where he would walk the streets, celebrate parish feast days and share bowls of lentils with parishioners …