Today in Buenos Aires, a reported 2.5 million people turned out to welcome Pope Leo XIV for an open-air morning mass, by far the largest crowd attending any event so far in the Pope’s 18-month service in office, exceeding even the crowd of 1.5 million in Madrid last June.

Today is the fifth day of Pope Leo’s 12-day, three-nation South American tour. He will continue on to Peru Nov. 11, and return to Rome Nov. 17. His tour started in Uruguay Nov. 5.

This is the first visit of a pope to Argentina, a majority-Catholic nation, in 39 years. Pope Leo gave a sermon at today’s mass, expressing joy at celebrating faith with everyone. But he lamented the conditions affecting many in Argentina, who are experiencing, “instability, social hardship, precarious employment, domestic violence, painful separations and addictions that destroy young people’s futures and damage family relationships.”