Pope Francis, a son of Argentina, welcomes its new president to the Vatican
A smiling Pope Francis welcomed the new president of Argentina, Alberto Fernández, to the Vatican Friday morning and then spoke with him in a private audience for 45 minutes.
“Holy Father, what a pleasure to see you again,” the Argentine president said as they shook hands. Their private conversation lasted twice as long as that of Mr. Fernández’s predecessor, Mauricio Macri, with Francis in 2016.
It was clear from the beginning that their discussion would focus on the dire economic situation in Argentina today, where the president has had to take immediate action to deal with the problem of widespread hunger.
Fernández, 60, inherited twin economic and debt crises from Macri.
His six-week old administration faces a $195 billion public foreign debt - much of which has been in default since September - 54% inflation, 41% income poverty, and a 7% fall in GDP since the current “Macrisis” began in April 2018.
Fernández said the debt owed by Argentina to the IMF (some $44 billion) was one of the main topics he discussed with Pope Francis and that they “also spoke much about poverty.”
“I asked that he do what he could to help us, and he will do that.”
At: https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2020/01/31/pope-francis-son-argentina-welcomes-its-new-president-vatican
Pope Francis reads from a book of poetry he presented to Argentine President Alberto Fernández as a gift during their meeting on Friday, as First Lady Fabiola Yáñez looks on.
Francis, who is Argentine, is largely supportive of the center-left Fernández as the latter struggles with socio-economic and debt crises inherited from his right-wing predecessor.
