Now We Know Why Bergoglio Never Returned to Argentina

Alicia Barrios, a close confidante of Bergoglio, confirmed that as Pope Francis he did not want to return to Argentina

“Francis did not come to Argentina because he did not want to – he was treated very badly.” With this pointed statement, the journalist Alicia Barrios, a longtime friend of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, yesterday offered a personal interpretation of one of the most striking omissions of Francis’s pontificate: The first pope from Latin America never returned to his homeland after his election in March 2013.

Barrios knew Bergoglio from his time as Archbishop of Buenos Aires. Her assessment points to a strained relationship between the later pope and his homeland that went far beyond the question of a missed trip.

Barrios thereby contradicts key points of the official narrative that was spread by the Bergoglian circle inside and outside the Vatican. According to this, a visit to Argentina had been made difficult for years by the country’s political polarization. Francis had therefore been advised against a trip from the Vatican because his visit would inevitably have been co-opted by political camps both positively, but above all also negatively. At the same time, the Pope had repeatedly indicated that he himself was considering a return.

Observers expressed the view early on that Francis in reality never had the intention of returning to his homeland again.

The dilemma was obvious: His earlier conflicts with political decision-makers made it difficult to detach him from the domestic political disputes of his country. This was all the more true since he, not only as Archbishop of Buenos Aires but also during his time as Pope, repeatedly and directly tried to exert influence on the political development of his country of origin. His efforts were directed at a certain radical left, but also at left-wing Peronism. Although Bergoglio had considerable conflicts to settle with individual representatives of this direction, these apparently weighed little when it came to preventing the electoral victory of a president from the non-left camp.

The political polarization that Francis apparently feared, he had to a good extent provoked himself. It was apparently even worth the renunciation of a visit to Argentina to him.

The statement by Barrios, a close confidante of Bergoglio, now confirms that it was Francis himself who did not want to visit Argentina. Francis had even said it openly in 2021: “I do not miss Argentina.”

Barrios suggests that behind the failure to return home were not only diplomatic considerations and tactical deliberations, but also personal experiences and injuries. Of the injuries he had inflicted on others, there is no mention.

Just one example among many may be mentioned: On the abortion question, Francis refused to really throw his authority as head of the Church into the balance, both first as Primate of Argentina and then as Pope. The disappointment among the pro-life supporters was enormous. The alliance, even in this question, with non-left forces was an abomination to him. Even more, he did not want to jeopardize his alliance with the political left, to which he adhered unwaveringly throughout his entire pontificate, without being able to draw any recognizable success in evangelization or any other benefit for the Church from it.

Francis died on April 21, 2025, without having seen Argentina again as Pope. Thus the non-return to the homeland remains a telling example of how much personal history and political conflicts can overshadow and darken the Church’s mission.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi

Image: X (Screenshot)

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

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