Image source, Luis ROBAYO / AFP via Getty Images
The Basilica of Our Lady of Luján and the Metropolitan Cathedral of Buenos Aires are among the main places of worship that Pope Leo XIV will visit during his trip to Argentina.
However, the American pontiff will not limit his agenda to the country's large and imposing temples. He also plans to learn about social initiatives promoted by the Catholic Church, among them the Little Argentine Cottolengo Don Orione.
The Little Cottolengo is a residence that, according to its website, "is focused on providing comprehensive and humanized care to people with disabilities."
The visit to the institution, which is part of the Small Work of Divine Providence - the congregation founded by Saint Louis Orione - is expected to last less than an hour.
However, this point on the agenda is considered in the country as one of the most symbolic gestures of the papal trip. The reason? It is interpreted in different sectors as support for an organization affected by the cuts to state funding for care for people with disabilities applied by the government of Javier Milei.
The local press assures that the ruling party is concerned about this gesture and fear that it will lead to criticism of the libertarian administration, especially after the archbishop of Buenos Aires, Jorge García Cuerva, declared that the pontiff will encounter "a wounded Argentina, a divided Argentina."
The pontiff's first statements upon arriving in the country reinforce these official concerns.
"The economy must be at the service of the person, and not the person at the service of the economy," said Leo XIV in his first speech.
End of Most read
However, Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno has denied that there is concern in the government. "Whatever message the Pope has to say, he will say it and that is perfectly fine," he declared hours before the arrival of the head of the Catholic Church.
On a holy brick
Little Cottolengo is located in Claypole, a town located about 25 kilometers southeast of Buenos Aires. It was founded in 1935 by Luis Orione, an Italian priest who died in 1940 at age 68 and was canonized by the Vatican in 2004.
The institution is one of hundreds that exist in the world. Its name pays tribute to another Italian saint, Giuseppe Benedetto Cottolengo, who in 1832 opened a house in Turin to care for the sick and people with disabilities.
Orione wanted to continue and honor that work when he received a property as a donation in 1915, according to his biography published by the Vatican.
Image source, Nicolas SUAREZ / AFP via Getty Images
All the news you need is on BBC World Service
Download it here
End of Ad app
The foundation stone of Claypole's Cottolengo was a brick that once covered the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica.
Despite initial difficulties, the center began operating in 1936 with an ambitious objective set by its founder.
"Little Cottolengo will always keep its door open to all kinds of moral or material misery. To the disillusioned, to the afflicted by life, it will give consolation and light of faith (...) in short, to all those who, for one reason or another, need assistance and help, but cannot be received in hospitals or asylums and are truly abandoned: whatever their nationality, whatever their religion, even if they had no religion: God is Father of all!", declared its founder in 1935.
Although it retains the word "small" in its name, Claypole's Cottolengo is far from small. In fact, it is the largest of the 14 that exist in the Southern Cone.
In its 50 hectares it houses residences where 415 people live, as well as schools, auditoriums and workshops for theater, music and different types of crafts and trades.
The property is crossed by streets that lead to a plaza and has a sanctuary in which the incorrupt heart of its promoter is exposed, it is explained on the congregation's website.
With such dimensions and services, it could be said that another of Orione's aspirations also came true.
"Buenos Aires can have the city of entertainment, it can have the city of studies; but Cottolengo will be the city of charity," he declared.
More than a hospital: a family
Due to its characteristics, Cottolengo does not fit the traditional definition of a hospital, asylum or shelter.
"Far from being a merely healthcare or hospitalization space, we function as an active and dynamic community," reads its website.
Next, it specifies that residents live organized in small groups within homes adapted to their support needs.
"This allows us to recreate the dynamics of a family, where each person has their home with their space, their routines, their moments of rest and their shared activities," it is added, while specifying that therapists, doctors, nurses, psychologists and volunteers offer assistance to residents 24 hours a day.
In addition, about 100 people visit the facilities each day to participate in rehabilitation programs and activities such as music, art, dance, theater, crafts, gardening and cooking workshops, as well as adapted sports, literacy and job training programs, and social activities.
The philosophy of the place was summed up in another sentence by Orione: "At the door of the Little Cottolengo, whoever enters will not be asked if he has a name, but only if he has a pain."
And how is the institution financed? Through a combination of donations, private contributions—mainly from insurance companies—and public funds, priest Aníbal Quevedo, a member of the Cottolengo board, explained to the newspaper Buenos Aires Times.
A delicate moment
"The visit takes place at a difficult time for the care of people with disabilities in Argentina," admitted the superior general of the Small Work of Divine Providence Congregation, Father Tarcísio Veira, in a letter he addressed to the pontiff thanking him for his gesture.
Since coming to power in 2023, Milei's "chainsaw" has hit sectors such as education, health and social assistance hard, including programs for people with disabilities.
The number of disability pensions decreased by 5.9%, reaching 1.14 million, between 2023 and September 2026, according to official data from the Ministry of Human Capital.
The average amount of the benefit also registered a drop of 15.9% in the last three years, despite the adjustments approved in recent months.
Likewise, the budget assigned to the National Disability Agency (ANDIS) for 2025 presented a reduction of approximately 30% compared to the 2024 budget, and of around 40% compared to the expenditure executed a year before.
These measures have earned the government a wave of criticism.
"Favoring the opulent and restricting help to the sick, the disabled, the retired, is a sign of decadence and personal sadism," declared Cardinal Ángel Rossi, archbishop of Córdoba, a few months ago during a homily in honor of Saint Louis Orione.
But ANDIS has not only suffered budget cuts in recent years and the loss of dozens of employees, but it also found itself at the center of controversy after publishing a resolution that described people with different degrees of disabilities as "idiots", "feeble-minded" and "imbeciles".
Image source, EMILIANO LASALVIA/AFP via Getty Images
At the same time that the government was applying harsh economic adjustments, in 2025 the scandal broke out over surcharges at ANDIS, which ended up affecting the president's sister, Karina Milei.
The issue of disability returned to the center of the political debate shortly after and was the reason for a dispute between the president and Congress, which lasted for months, over a law promoted by the opposition that declared the sector an emergency and forced the State to increase assistance funds.
The president vetoed the law because he considered that it put his goal of "zero deficit" at risk. However, last month he changed his mind and backed new legislation, which had the support of the Catholic Church, and agreed to include new resources in the 2027 budgets.
Official measures related to disability are rejected by 71% of citizens, according to a survey published a few weeks ago by AtlasIntel and Bloomberg.
In this context, the Little Cottolengo has also been affected.
In October 2026, the government canceled a debt of more than 750 million pesos (US$485,000), but the institution also claimed 828 million (US$535,000) for supplies and medicines corresponding to March and June 2026. A federal judge then ordered the seizure of Ministry of Health accounts for that amount.
"We have high expectations that the debt owed to people with disabilities, in a broad sense, will be settled," the director of the establishment's Disability Service, Fernando Montero, told the C5N channel.
Discover more
Video
End of Video
