(The Vatican says no meeting is currently on the Pope’s agenda.) Somehow, Leuco got word that Kirchner would visit the Vatican on June 7 and again pay a call on the pontiff, which he says prompted his open letter. Under the constitution, Kirchner is not allowed to run for a third term this year, but some of her supporters are suggesting a constitutional amendment. In his open letter to Francis, Leuco strongly urged the Pope not to allow a fifth, especially so close to Argentina’s general election in October. Kirchner’s attitude toward Francis apparently has changed, though, since his election in March 2013.Īccording to Argentine journalists, the two have met – with photographers in tow – at least four times since March 2013.

When he was Cardinal Bergoglio, Archbishop of Buenos Aires, he and the President clashed over abortion, same-sex marriage, corruption and poverty. Judging from the recent past, Pope Francis is no fan of Kirchner, either.

The latest example comes from Leuco, a writer for Clarin, a Buenos Aires-based newspaper that has been at odds with President Cristina de Fernandez Kirchner, Argentina’s leader since 2007. But together, the calls burnish Francis’ “man of the people” mystique, as if he were just another parish pastor, whose congregation happens to include nearly 1 billion souls. They neither confirm nor deny most of his chats. Vatican officials are cautious about the calls, saying that the Pope’s personal conversations are his own business. (He asked what they were doing away from the nunnery.)

There was the Argentine woman whom he reportedly instructed to take Holy Communion, despite the fact that her husband had been divorced from his first wife.įrancis called the Foley family of New Hampshire after the murder of their son, James, at the hands of ISIS last August, and he left a jocular message for Spanish nuns on New Year’s Eve. There was the Italian woman he comforted after she said she was pressured to have an abortion. Pity the Vatican’s poor long-distance operator, no Pope has burned up the phone lines quite like Francis. The call ended with the journalist, Alfredo Leuco, pledging to learn how to pray. This time, according to an Argentine journalist, Francis phoned to answer a column about candidates who seek campaign-boosting photo ops with the popular pontiff. Yes, the “Cold Call Pope” rang again this week. Memo to journalists: When you write an open letter to the Pope, keep your cell phone charged.

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