Leo XIV Goes to Argentina: How Popular Is the Pope in Francis’s Home Country? Study Published
A nationwide survey found that 68.5% of Argentines view Pope Leo XIV positively, while 7.2% hold a negative opinion. The Zuban Córdoba poll surveyed 2,000 people across Argentina from September 16 to 19, with a reported 95% confidence level. Leo XIV is scheduled to arrive in Argentina on November 8 for his first visit; 9.7% of respondents said they did not know who he was, and 14.6% were unsure how to answer.
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Pope Leo XIV is scheduled to visit Argentina from November 8 to 11, 2026, and a September nationwide poll found that 68.5% of respondents viewed him favorably, compared with 7.2% unfavorably. The survey offers an early measure of his standing ahead of a visit shaped by Argentina’s connection to his predecessor, Pope Francis.
Polling firm Zuban Córdoba surveyed 2,000 people across Argentina from September 16 to 19. It reported a 95% confidence level.
Nearly one in ten respondents—9.7%—said they did not know who Leo XIV was, while 14.6% said they did not know how to answer.
Views varied by age. Favorable ratings were highest among people over 60, at 74%, and stood at 69.2% among respondents aged 31 to 45. Among those aged 16 to 30, 59.6% held a favorable view and 16.4% an unfavorable one.
The difference by gender was smaller: 71.6% of men and 65.9% of women reported a favorable opinion.
Leo’s visit will be his first to Argentina as pope and will follow an initial stop in Uruguay. He is due to leave Argentina for Peru on November 11; he spent years in Peru as an Augustinian missionary and later served as bishop of Chiclayo.
The planned Argentina itinerary includes Mass and a vigil with young people in Buenos Aires, a trip to Córdoba, and a final stop at the Basilica of Our Lady of Luján, Argentina’s national shrine dedicated to its patroness. Organizers expect as many as one million people at Luján, particularly for the Eucharistic celebration.
The visit carries particular significance because Argentina is the homeland of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Pope Francis. Leo’s trip will be the first by Francis’s successor since his election, against the backdrop of Francis’s long absence from his home country during his pontificate.
The poll is a snapshot taken weeks before Leo arrives, rather than a forecast of the visit’s reception. It records broad favorable sentiment alongside respondents who were unfamiliar with the pope or undecided; the visit will bring him into direct contact with Argentines through public events and meetings.
Argentine Catholics negotiate papal authority through popular religious reception
Argentine Catholics can be understood as “negotiating” papal authority not by voting on whether the pope has authority, but by receiving his teaching through local devotional life. In the Argentine theology of the people, popular piety—prayer, pilgrimage, feasts, and devotion to saints—is treated as a genuine expression of faith and a resource for evangelization, rather than merely a remnant of a premodern culture.
This approach makes reception reciprocal. The faithful’s religious practices give theology and Church leaders insight into how the Gospel is embodied in a people’s culture; pastors, in turn, are to guide popular devotion so that it grows in maturity and remains connected to the Church. Popular piety is therefore neither simply imposed from above nor automatically beyond criticism.
The word “negotiate” needs care, however. These sources support a claim about cultural and pastoral mediation, not about Catholics possessing a separate authority that overrides the pope or the bishops. One scholarly account explicitly says that the Argentine approach values the people’s religious life while recognizing the hierarchical Church as necessary.
The deeper point is that papal teaching is received through concrete religious habits and symbols, not only through formal statements. The supplied scholarship describes popular piety as carrying theological meaning that is often expressed symbolically rather than through abstract argument. It also presents the Argentine approach as an attempt to hold together popular faith, pastoral guidance, and the Church’s missionary purpose.
This evidence illuminates an Argentine theological framework, but it does not establish how Argentine Catholics today receive any particular pope or teaching. The available material offers no current survey or direct account of that reception.