Pope will wrap up Argentina tour with a visit to a prison and a shrine before heading home to Peru

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Pope Leo XIV will wrap up his visit to Argentina with two poignant moments: a meeting with inmates at a prison with a history linked to the country’s military dictatorship, and a…

Pope Leo XIV will wrap up his visit to Argentina with two poignant moments: a meeting with inmates at a prison with a history linked to the country’s military dictatorship, and a final Mass at Argentina’s national shrine

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Pope Leo XIV will wrap up his visit to Argentina with two poignant moments on Wednesday — a meeting with inmates at a prison with a history linked to the country’s military dictatorship, and a final Mass at Argentina’s national shrine.

Both sites have important sentimental connections to Leo’s predecessor, Pope Francis. But Leo's final Argentine stops will pale in comparison to the emotional highlight of his South American trip, when he returns home later Wednesday to Peru.

A massive national party is planned to greet Leo, who spent over two decades as a missionary priest and bishop in Peru. He is known to Peruvians as Padre Robert and is beloved for ministering to poor communities, especially in times of crisis.

In Buenos Aires, Leo was scheduled to visit the Devoto Prison, where Francis often ministered when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires. Francis celebrated Masses, visited cellblocks housing inmates with AIDS and washed the feet of prisoners during the annual Holy Week ritual.

The prison, inaugurated in 1927, is currently undergoing its definitive closure and transfer of its more than 1,000 inmates to a new penitentiary complex.

During the last military dictatorship (1976–1983), it functioned as a clandestine detention and torture center and was designated as a Memory Site in 2012, to ensure the military repression is not forgotten.

Human rights activist lawyers have petitioned the courts to prevent any decision involving the sale or disposal of the prison’s land and facilities once all inmates are transferred, saying “the space must be preserved until the investigations regarding the crimes against humanity that occurred” there are finalized.

In 1978, 65 common prisoners were killed in a…

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