Argentina 'slum priests' take pope's message to the poor

Priest Jesus Carides holds a portrait of the late Pope Francis as he gives a mass at the Caacupe Parrish in Buenos Aires on April 21, 2025. [AFP]

Down a narrow street in Villa 31, the oldest of Buenos Aires's informal settlements, Father Ignacio "Nacho" Bagattini celebrates mass in a community centre for homeless drug addicts.

The legacy of Pope Francis, who famously exhorted young Catholics to "shake things up" by taking the gospel to "favelas, slums and shantytowns," lives on in the ramshackle neighborhood of 40,000 souls, a stone's throw from the well-heeled district of Retiro.