Ines San Martin

When Pope Leo XIV arrives in Argentina Nov. 8, he will become the first pope to set foot in the country in nearly four decades — and the first to encounter a nation still wrestling with the legacy of the Argentine who preceded him.

As the first pope in modern history to have spent much of his priestly ministry as a missionary, Pope Leo arrives in Spain June 6 with a unique familiarity not only with the country itself — which he has visited almost 50 times — but also with the missionary tradition that helped shape Catholicism across much of the world.

When Pope Leo XIV was elected to the papacy on May 8, 2025, few felt the change more personally than those who had known him long before he stepped onto the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica.