In the early morning of April 21, Pope Francis, the Argentine pontiff who led the Catholic Church, died, thereby prompting an outpouring of reactions from his native country.

Jorge Mario Bergoglio was 88 years old. He passed in his apartment at the Santa Marta residence in Vatican City, where he had lived since his election in 2013.

"At 7.35am this morning, the Bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the house of the Father. His entire life was dedicated to the service of the Lord and His Church," announced Irish Cardinal Kevin Farrell, Cardinal Camerlengo of the Church.

"He taught us to live the values ​​of the Gospel with fidelity, courage and universal love, especially in favour of the poorest and most marginalised."

Twelve years after crowding the streets of Buenos Aires to celebrate Pope Francis' coronation, Argentines took to the streets to mourn the death of the pontiff, who became a national hero, Bloomberg reported, particularly as the first Latin American Pope in history.

"His was a discreet death, almost sudden, without long suffering or public alarm, for a Pope who was always very reserved about his health," the Vatican news agency said, confirming Francis had suffered a stroke that led to irreversible cardiac arrest.

Bergoglio's unexpected elevation at age 76 transformed him from a retiring archbishop to a global religious leader.
"When he left Buenos Aires for the conclave, he seemed somewhat sad; he was getting ready to retire," said Guillermo Marcó, a priest from the Buenos Aires Archdiocese, according to Clarin.

Francis, a son of Italian immigrants, never set foot in Argentina again after leaving the country to participate in the Conclave to elect the successor to his predecessor, Benedict XVI, who resigned in early 2013 due to poor health.

“We’ve lost the father of us all, the father of all humanity, who insisted time and again that the Church must have room for everyone,” Jorge García Cuerva, the archbishop of Buenos Aires, was cited by Perfil as stating during a Mass held in Pope Francis’s honour at the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Cathedral.

President Javier Milei ordered that flags be flown at half-mast atop Casa Rosada and declared seven days of national mourning. The Senate, through a decree signed by Vice President Victoria Villarruel, joined this mourning period, confirming that the national flag will remain at half-mast for seven days in Congress, as reported by Clarín. Meanwhile, Perfil reported that the Argentine Congress postponed its regular agenda, including questioning Chief of Staff Guillermo Francos regarding the $LIBRA crypto scandal.

Milei will travel to Rome “tentatively on April 24” to pay tribute to Pope Francis and participate in the state funeral.

“As president, as an Argentine and fundamentally, as a person of faith, I say goodbye to the Holy Father, and I stand with all those who today find themselves with this sad news,” Milei stated.

Critics questioned Bergoglio's record during Argentina's military dictatorship, while his perceived leftist political leanings created controversy in the deeply divided nation.

"Yes, I am doing politics. Because everybody has to do politics. Christian people have to do politics. When we read what Jesus said, we see that he was doing politics," Francis said in 2023, while calling on world leaders to do more to protect the most vulnerable.

This profound loss comes at a challenging time for largely Catholic Argentina, potentially altering the dynamic between the Milei administration and the Church, which had been marked by tension despite the President's recent reconciliation efforts with the pontiff prior to his untimely passing. During the electoral campaign in 2023, Milei called Francis "the representation of evil on Earth" and accused him of having an “affinity with murderous communists.” But the libertarian leader later softened his rhetoric, inviting the Pope to Argentina in an official visit that, however, never materialised.

The process for choosing a new pope will now begin, with the conclave typically convening between 15 and 20 days after a pontiff's death. Cardinals from around the world will gather in Vatican City to select Francis's successor through the traditional secret ballot process, as the Catholic Church enters a period of transition while Argentines continue to process their complex relationship with their native son who became pope.