Overview

• Presiding at the concluding Mass of the 51st annual walk to the Basilica of Luján, the Archbishop urged people not to give in to the despair of “no se puede.”
• He said many Argentines “no longer have strength to continue” because poverty, the fallout of narcotrafficking, illness and loneliness weigh on them, adding that pilgrims carry those burdens “in the backpack of the soul.”
• García Cuerva warned against “atajos tramposos” and promises of “espejitos de colores,” urging a patient, united response rather than superficial fixes.
• Large crowds reached the sanctuary on foot from San Cayetano in Liniers after a day that began under sun and ended in storms, with long lines forming outside the basilica.
• In interviews around the pilgrimage he cautioned that the retreat of the state allows organized crime to advance, declaring that Argentines deserve “something better, not the narcoestado.”