The differences between the nation’s president and his deputy even extend into the religious sphere. While Javier Milei receives the priests in the Casa Rosada and prays with them, but does not respond to the bishops’ request for an audience, Victoria Villarruel has just inaugurated a Catholic oratory in the Senate with conspicuous prelates.
Last year, those in charge of the bishops’ conference asked for a meeting with the president to honor the tradition of bringing Christmas greetings. However, since they received no response this year, they decided to greet them with a letter advocating for “solid social peace,” to which Milei responded.
It was not lost on the Catholic prelates that Milei always found time throughout the year to receive Argentine pastors and – in an unprecedented event – even pray with them at the government building and also with Donald Trump’s main preacher Franklin Graham, who led two meetings at Vélez Stadium.
He also hosted prominent rabbis with Israel’s Sephardic chief rabbi, David Yosef, a setting that is appreciated by the bishops because it reflects a special sensitivity to the religious world but unsettles them because they are not available to welcome those who belong to the country’s most traditional and majority religion.
There are those who believe that the fact that Milei prefers the association with the evangelicals is due to a greater ideological harmony and the almost absence of any criticism, in contrast to the bishops, where the coincidences are less ironclad and social issues are questioned frequently and sometimes even violently.
In the case of his relationship with the rabbis, Milei said before the presidential campaign that he was studying Jewish spirituality because he admired the religion – and he even gave thanks for his election victory at the grave of the Chabad-Lubavitch Rebbe, Menachem Mendel, in New York.
In return, Villarruel had arranged for an oratory to be set up in the office of Senator Edgardo Kueider, who was arrested in Paraguay last year while trying to deposit $200,000 and was then expelled from the chamber, prompting criticism from the renowned priest Norberto Saracco because he considered it discriminatory.
In line with the usual position of evangelicals, Saracco held that, in a state institution, any permanent religious initiative must include all religions, since Argentina is not a confessional country with an official religion and that although there is freedom of religion, there must always be equality in the practice of religion.
When a strip reading “Consult Security Department” appeared on the office door a few days later, it was assumed that Villarruel had deactivated the Oratory due to Saracco’s criticism. The speculation was heightened by the fact that there was no official information about the opening and eventual closure.
But on the eve of Christmas Eve, its inauguration was announced and blessed by the Apostolic Nuncio (Ambassador of the Holy See), Monsignor Miroslaw Adamczyk, in a ceremony also attended by the Vicar General (number two) of the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires, Bishop Pedro Cannavó.
In addition, it was announced that it will be named “Mama Antula”, the name of the first Argentine saint canonized by Pope Francis in 2024, and that little by little the images of the most popular Marian devotions (Virgins) of the different provinces will be placed there after consultation with the senators.
“We must remember that the Catholic Church precedes the Argentine nation, it has been the key to its formation and respect for all religions does not mean not recognizing the most important religious tradition in an area such as the Senate, which represents the provinces where the Catholic presence is overwhelming in many of them,” they explained alongside the Vice President.
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