Argentina has been in a state of economic upheaval for years with two constants—a continuous increase in poverty and corresponding efforts by the Catholic Church to respond to that need.

‘The Sound of Silence’ version of the ‘Our Father’ has been widespread throughout Latin America and U.S. Latino communities for the last few decades.

Pope Francis has been managing church-state relations well since Javier Milei’s election, while the church hierarchy in Argentina has kept a cautious and skeptical distance from the country’s new leader.

President Bukele has used his emergency powers to detain more than 78,000 suspected gang members in security sweeps that human rights groups charge are often arbitrary and violent.

“We have to make ‘Evangelii Gaudium’ a reality,” Archbishop García Cuerva tell Gerard O’Connell. “We must make a reality Francis’ words, his documents, his vision of the church as a field hospital.”

In an exclusive interview with Gerard O’Connell, Archbishop Jorge Ignacio García Cuerva explains why his first three Masses in Buenos Aires were celebrated in a shanty town, prison and cemetery.