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BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (RNS) — In an exchange of speeches that kicked off the first papal visit to Argentina since 1987, Pope Leo XIV nudged Argentina’s leaders to continue to invest in social programming. At the same event Sunday (Nov. 8), Argentina’s President Javier Milei, previously a papal critic, struck a conciliatory tone and mounted a theological defense of his economic policy, which has been criticized by local Catholic leaders.

“We should govern for all and work for the common good. That is the certainty, the teaching and the profound responsibility that the faith imposes upon us,” Milei said in Spanish.…