ROME.- The Pope Leo XIV’s trip to Latin Americawhich will be in the first half of November, will last about two weeks, with ten days in Peru, three in Argentina and one and a half in Uruguay.
“Although official confirmation is missing, it is what is rumored in the Vatican and I have been told it from various sides,” he told THE NATION Santiago Oliveramilitary bishop of our country who is in the Vatican and who this Wednesday greeted the Pope at the end of the general audience, accompanied by twenty Argentine soldiers participating in the United Nations mission in Cyprus.
“The greeting was brief because he was with the peace forces, I told him that we are waiting for him and he told me ‘we will see’ with an almost knowing smile,” said Olivera, who participated alongside Lieutenant Colonel Martín Pérez Marignac, the military vicar general, Monsignor Gustavo Acuña, the chaplain who is deployed in Cyprus, Father Sergio Fernández, and the military attaché in Italy, Germán Zarralanga.
“The greeting was very short, but it is a gesture, it is a sign of communion and very nice,” said Olivera, who had already accompanied the uniformed men two other times, the last time also with Pope León and the penultimate one, with Pope Francis.
Dressed due to the stifling heat wave that hits Europe with a white cassock, which he also used to wear in the torrid summers he spent in Cruz del Eje, where he was bishop, Olivera, aware of the enormous expectation in Argentina for the papal visit, although he warned that it is not officially confirmed, did not hesitate to consider it almost a fact.
“The announcement is still missing, the technical aspect is still missing, although here they say it quite strongly, with great probability,” he said, recalling that, in addition, the American Archbishop Michael Wallace Banach, the new nuncio, that is, the Vatican ambassador in our country, is still missing from arriving in Buenos Aires, something scheduled for mid-July. “We must wait for confirmation from the Holy Father, as Colombo said,” he added, referring to the president of the episcopate.
Last week the interim president of Peru, José María Balcázar Zeladaconfirmed the trip and said that it will be in the first half of November. Olivera, who was with Cardinal Daniel Sturla, archbishop of Montevideo, said that he also takes the Uruguayan stop for granted and warned, on the other hand, that if one enters the Pope’s audience calendar on the Vatican website for the first half of November, the one for Wednesday, November 11, is missing, probably due to the tour.
As the president said that the Pope in Peru wants to visit Lima, Chiclayo, Piura, Pulcallpa, in the Amazon jungle and Cuzco, there is speculation about a longer stage there. So much so that Olivera also indicated that there is talk of a 9 or 10 day visit to Peru – where Robert Prevost lived half of his priestly life, first as an Augustinian missionary and then as bishop – and a shorter one in the country of his predecessor.
“They say that 10 days to Peru, 3 to Argentina and a day and a half to Uruguay, is what is rumored,” he indicated.
Asked about which cities he would visit in Argentina – the last time visited by Saint John Paul II in 1987 -, Olivera confirmed that the bishops advised Buenos Aires, Córdoba and Santiago del Esterobecause it is the primate diocese.
“This was discussed as a possibility, a proposal from the Argentine bishops, but confirmation from the Holy See is certainly missing,” he stressed.
As he is also vice postulator of the cause of the “businessman of God”, Enrique Shaw, Olivera did not rule out that the Pope could celebrate the beatification ceremony on one of the three days he will be in Argentina. “Tomorrow I will meet with Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints and we will talk about the issue, whether it is better for the beatification to be during the Pope’s visit or later,” he said.
“Because it is already very difficult to prepare a visit by the Pope and a beatification. But, theoretically, beatification, if the Pope is there, would also be good if he could do it and there are many precedents in that sense, such as Pope Francis, who in September 2017 beatified two Colombian priests in Colombia and in August 2014 in South Korea, 124 Korean martyrs,” he said.
In any case, Olivera stressed that the Pope’s visit will be important for Argentina because of the message of peace and against the polarization that it will bring. “What he preached recently in Spain are words that help us with the culture of encounter that Pope Francis preached so much and that we need so much… It is a good message for everyone,” he concluded.
