One day after the largest crowd of his papacy filled Buenos Aires, Pope Leo XIV carried a simpler message to Argentina’s heartland on Tuesday: holiness is not reserved for a few. Local authorities estimated about 650,000 people gathered for an open-air Mass on the grounds of the Military Aviation School on the outskirts of Córdoba, the country’s second-largest city, according to Reuters and EWTN News.
“We are all called to holiness,” the pope told the crowd, according to the Vatican’s published text of the homily. He described Córdoba as a home of saints and pointed to ordinary men and women whose faith shaped the region, then closed with a short charge to go out and share the Gospel.
What happened in Córdoba
Pilgrims traveled from across Argentina for the Mass, and crowds pressed against barriers as the pope arrived in an open-air popemobile, Reuters reported. The pope made a roughly 1,300-kilometer (807-mile) round trip from Buenos Aires for his Córdoba events. OSV News reported the Mass started about 15 minutes late because the pope stopped to attend to a person in the section reserved for people with disabilities.
Tuesday’s visit followed Monday’s Mass in Buenos Aires, which drew an estimated 2.5 million people. Upstormed News covered that gathering in Pope Leo draws 2.5 million to Buenos Aires Mass, urges families to share faith. Leo is the first pope to visit Argentina since 1987, according to Reuters.
A “polyphonic” picture of holiness
The homily leaned on local examples. The pope named St. José Gabriel del Rosario Brochero, a missionary priest known as “Father Brochero,” and St. María Antonia de Paz y Figueroa, known as Mama Antula, Argentina’s first woman saint. He also cited Blessed María del Tránsito Cabanillas and Blessed Catalina de María Rodríguez, who founded religious communities. EWTN News noted that Brochero, Cabanillas and Rodríguez were all Córdoba natives.
According to the Vatican text, the pope compared the many colors and shapes of Córdoba’s nearby mountains to the different ways saints have served God: as priests and religious sisters, as martyrs, as teachers, as caregivers for the sick, and as lay people living faithfully at home and at work. He said Brochero drew his strength from prayer, and that Mama Antula joined quiet contemplation with practical service to her neighbors, OSV News reported.
The date added meaning. Nov. 10 is the Church’s memorial of St. Leo the Great, the fifth-century pope, and the homily quoted him on recognizing one’s God-given dignity.
The Scripture at the center
Among the passages the pope drew on was the day’s responsorial psalm, a verse that sums up his message in a single line:
“Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.” (Psalm 37:3, KJV)
The verse puts trust and action side by side. Trusting God and doing good were never meant to be separate, and the saints the pope named in Córdoba lived that out by praying hard and then going to serve. Psalm 37 speaks to people tempted to fret over troubles around them, and its answer is to keep faith and keep doing good.
The pope also pointed to Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Christ (Matthew 16:16) and to Paul’s words that God’s will is our sanctification (1 Thessalonians 4:3). His point was that holiness grows out of a real friendship with Christ and then reaches outward to other people.
Faith and the poor
After Mass, the pope was scheduled to meet 20 people chosen by the Córdoba archdiocese’s ministry to the poor, OSV News reported. They included a migrant leader, a survivor of human trafficking and a person still searching for parents who disappeared during Argentina’s military dictatorship. Reuters noted that in his sermon he also remembered people killed by the military junta in 1976.
Concern for the poor has run through the whole trip. Reuters reported that on Sunday the pope urged President Javier Milei not to let austerity cuts fall on the poorest Argentines. Milei’s government says the cuts are needed to bring down inflation.
Father Kevin Córdoba, a priest from Chubut province who attended the Mass, told OSV News he believes the visit is “like a new Pentecost” for Argentina.
Why it matters for families
The pope’s message was not about big gestures. He urged people to live holiness at school, at home, at work and in the countryside. For families heading into the Thanksgiving season, that is a practical challenge: pray together, then look for one person nearby who needs help. Psalm 37:3 gives a simple family motto worth putting on the refrigerator: trust God, and do good.
What to watch next
The pope was scheduled to meet priests, religious and seminarians in Córdoba and then lead an evening prayer vigil with young people. On Wednesday, Nov. 11, his last day in Argentina, OSV News reported he will visit a prison in Buenos Aires and celebrate Mass outside the Basilica of Our Lady of Luján before flying to Peru. The three-country trip, which began in Uruguay, runs through Nov. 17. Earlier in the visit, a chalice made from Falklands War metal was presented to him, as Upstormed News reported in Falklands War Metal Becomes a ‘Chalice of Peace’ for Pope Leo in Argentina. Upstormed News will follow the rest of the journey.
Read more: ‘Father, Forgive Them’: The Chosen Brings the Crucifixion to Prime Video Nov. 15
Where have you seen someone “trust in the Lord, and do good” in everyday life this year?
Sources: Reuters via GV Wire, “Pope Leo Draws 650,000 in Another Strong Argentine Turnout” (November 10, 2026); EWTN News, “Pope Leo XIV lauds an Argentine city as a ‘home of saints’” (November 10, 2026); OSV News via The Catholic Sun, “Pope recalls Argentine saints in Córdoba; priest says apostolic trip like ‘new Pentecost’” (November 10, 2026); Vatican, “Holy Mass in the Grounds of the Military Aviation School (Córdoba, 10 November 2026)” (November 10, 2026); Bible Gateway, Psalm 37:3 (KJV).
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