Star Metro - Argentina mourns loss of papal son

As dawn broke and news rippled out from the Vatican, street sweeper Javier Languenari was shooing early autumn leaves from the front of the neo-classical building where a once youthful Jorge Bergoglio -- still far from becoming leader of the globe's Roman Catholic community -- had served as archbishop.

"As Argentinians, we are orphaned," said the 53-year-old, shaking his head in regret. "He endured as much as he could."

The 88-year-old's death did not come as a surprise. He had spent 38 days hospitalized with severe pneumonia and appeared frail in what would be his farewell public appearance on Easter Sunday.

But the death of Latin America's first pope -- the first non-European pope in more than a millennium -- still hit home.

At the cathedral door, a 78-year-old woman sat crying inconsolably as she held a plastic bowl to receive alms.

Others lit candles in quiet elegy.

For many in perennially crisis-stricken Argentina, Francis' willingness to champion the poor, challenge governments and delight in everything from tango to soccer made him not just a religious guide, but a source of national pride.

Mourner Graciela Vilamia recalled seeing the pope receive the weeping mothers of those who disappeared during Argentina's long and murderous dictatorship.

"I've known him for 30 years," she said.

In his final years, Francis had often tussled with Argentina's current libertarian president, Javier Milei.

But there was a rare sense of political unity Monday, in what is still a deeply polarized nation.

"Francis' message was always for us to unite, to reach out to those most in need," said Agustin Hartridge, a 41-year-old lawyer.

"That candle I lit is a tribute to all he taught us."

Milei too acknowledged that his political differences with the late pontiff "today seem minor", as he prepared to decree seven days of national mourning.

T. MacDonald--SMC