Pope Francis visited dozens of countries but never Argentina, his homeland

Argentines eagerly await Pope Francis' return, but political tensions prevent the first Latin American pope from visiting his homeland.

Argentines have long waited for Pope Francis to visit the homeland he left in 2013 to become the head of the Roman Catholic Church.

Pope Francis has made more than 45 international trips during his papacy, including the first by any pope to Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Myanmar, North Macedonia, Bahrain and Mongolia.

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But the one-time archbishop of Buenos Aires has never returned to Argentina.

“One of the great curiosities of his papacy was the fact that, unlike his predecessors, Francis never visited his native country,” Jimmy Burns, author of the 2015 biography “Francis, Pope of Good Promise” said.

Mr. Burns said he believed Francis did not want to be seen siding either with the left-leaning Peronists or the conservatives in the country’s polarized political environment. “Any visit would try and be exploited by one side or the other, and he would unwittingly fuel those divisions,” he said.

Many in Argentina anticipated a visit to the country shortly after Francis took office and visited Brazil. There was again chatter about a trip in 2024. But in both cases the visit never materialized.