"Visiting the Pope's Parish Up until recently, the Catedral Metropolitana was famous for a few things - the rococo altar, the Christ statue carved from algarrobo (carob) wood, the fact that it's the final resting place of the great South American liberator General Jose de San Martin. Lately the city cathedral has made headlines for something bigger - it's the parish of the former Archbishop of Buenos Aires , Jorge Mario Bergoglio, now known as Pope Francis, the first Latin American pope in history. Stop in to admire the beautiful baroque interior - and while you're here, picture the throngs of proud Argentinians who crowded into the nave on the day Bergoglio was chosen as the next pope."