Pope Francis, the former Argentinian cardinal who often bucked age-old Vatican traditions in favor of more modern yet humble approaches, died after an extended respiratory illness on April 21, the Vatican confirmed. He was 88 years old.
The pope, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires to Italian immigrant parents, was the first pope from the Americas and the first born outside of Europe in over a millennia.
When he was elected in 2013, Pope Francis said he chose his name in honor of St. Francis of Assisi, the 13th-century Italian friar who renounced his wealth to become “a man of peace, a man of poverty, a man who loved and protected creation,” according to the National Catholic Reporter.
“How I would love a church that is poor and for the poor,” Francis, a Jesuit priest by order, told reporters at the time.
In his papacy, he tried to commit to those ideals. Instead of taking residence in the Apostolic Palace, he stayed in a Vatican guesthouse. Rather than limousines, he rode in Fiats and Jeeps.
His leadership – of over some 1.4 billion Catholics globally – will be remembered for outreach to women, immigrants and refugees, LGBTQ people, and people from other faiths. He sometimes took progressive or controversial stances on pressing issues, such as same-sex couples and climate change.
For some, he was considered too radical in trying to enact change in the 2,000-year-old church. Others thought he was a fresh start to make faith again relevant in secular societies, with many adherents driven from Catholicism after decades of scandal, including corruption and child sex abuse.
Still, critics, including the U.S.-based advocacy group New Ways Ministry, thought some of his views – such as the role of women in the church – were outdated, but they thought the Vatican laid the groundwork for future change on some positions.
The pope’s worsening health
While Francis sought to be a modernizing force, he was already 76 years old by the time he was elected by the conclave to lead the church. Early in his papacy, he suspected he only had “two or three years” left to live before he’d be “off to the Father’s house,” he told reporters.
Despite this, he would continue to lead the Catholic Church, even if he had health problems that seemingly increased with time and severity.
In early February, he canceled several events and by the middle of the month was hospitalized for bronchitis. He had reportedly struggled to breathe and speak. On Feb. 18 he was diagnosed with bilateral pneumonia. He would have several visits to the papal wing at Gemelli Hospital in Rome and an extended stay in the hospital.
After 38 days in hospital, Francis returned to his Vatican residence at the Casa Santa Marta to continue his recovery. He died there the morning of Easter Monday.
He had fallen in both December and January, suffering minor injuries and requiring him to use a cane or wheelchair at some events. Last year, he skipped his traditional homily during Palm Sunday in March, but he still presided over Easter Mass that drew thousands to St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City.
Decades before, in 1957, he underwent surgery to remove one of his lungs after a severe respiratory infection, Catholic News Service reported.
‘First pope of the Americas,’ prioritizing climate
On March 13, 2013, Francis succeeded Pope Benedict XVI, who was the first pope to retire in six centuries. Francis became the 266th occupant of the papacy, which dates back to St. Peter, the disciple of Jesus Christ, who is considered the first pope.
The Vatican’s biography of Francis names him “the first Pope of the Americas.” Before being elected to the papacy, he was Cardinal Bergoglio, archbishop of Buenos Aires. He became the first pope from Latin America, the first from the Southern Hemisphere, and the first non-European since Syrian-born Gregory III, who served in the eighth century.
In doing so, Francis elevated the role in the Roman Catholic Church of what he has called “peripheries” of the world in the “Global South.”
His first visit was to Rio de Janeiro, gathering 3.5 million people to Copacabana Beach in 2013. He’d travel around the world – from the largest papal event in history with a 2015 mass in Manila that drew up to 7 million people in the deeply Catholic country of the Philippines, to being the first pope to visit Mongolia, Iraq and the deeply Muslim Arabian Peninsula. He made stops along the way in Congo, Kazakhstan and Myanmar, among other countries.
He sought to ensure a more diverse future for the church, especially since at least three-quarters of Catholics live outside of Europe. During his first decade as pope, Francis named 121 cardinals representing 66 countries, composed of about 20% from Latin America and the Caribbean; 19% from Asia and the Pacific; and 13% from sub-Saharan Africa, according to the Pew Research Center.
“Diversity is necessary; it is indispensable,” Francis said in a 2023 homily, when he appointed 21 cardinals from around the world – including the first from South Sudan and the second from Malaysia – Reuters reported.
At the same time, Francis, named in honor of the patron saint of ecology, prioritized climate change as the world has come to feel worsening effects of a warming planet, particularly among those in poverty who are at most risk from extreme weather events. Early in his papacy, he issued a 183-page encyclical, titled “On Care for Our Common Home,” the first entirely written under his leadership.
“The urgent challenge to protect our common home includes a concern to bring the whole human family together to seek a sustainable and integral development, for we know that things can change,” he said.
He also frequently criticized capitalism and the rise of nationalism and populism, though shrugged off accusations of Marxism and communism. After the COVID-19 pandemic, he warned against plunging even more deeply into “feverish consumerism and new forms of egotistic self-preservation.”
Flashback: Pope Francis marks start to papacy with inaugural Mass
Embracing LGBTQ people, divorced Catholics, women
Francis was known for his outreach to communities historically marginalized by the church or societies writ large. He championed migrants and refugees, as well as others who were poor, sick and disabled, and older.
He declared in 2023 that “being homosexual isn’t a crime.” While not a full embrace of LGBTQ+ people, his statement made headlines globally. That same year, he welcomed transgender women to lunch at the Vatican. A month later, he approved blessing same-sex couples, though he distinguished such blessings from the sacrament of marriage. In the same declaration, he approved of blessings for divorced or remarried people.
Still, he reaffirmed the church’s doctrine that marriage was a union between a man and woman.
While bucking some trends, he remained committed to church stances on abortion, calling it “homicide.” However, he has written to forgive people for what the church viewed as the sin of abortion, as CNN reported.
Looking at the United States, he told Catholics in the 2024 presidential election to “choose the lesser evil” between President Donald Trump and then-Vice President Kamala Harris who were both “against life.” Whereas Trump promised to deport millions of immigrants and turn away migrants, Harris supported abortion rights, which he referred to as killing a human being.
But not voting, he said, is “ugly. You must vote.”
In February, Francis again criticized Trump’s immigration policies. Without naming the president in an open letter to American bishops, Francis said the president’s policies would “end badly.” Francis also criticized Vice President JD Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019. Vance has cited the Catholic theological concept of “order of love” to justify American-centric policies that turn away others globally. Francis didn’t agree.
“I exhort all the faithful of the Catholic Church, and all men and women of good will, not to give in to narratives that discriminate against and cause unnecessary suffering to our migrant and refugee brothers and sisters,” Francis wrote.
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A life of teaching, service and priestly pursuits
Born on Dec. 17, 1936, Francis was one of five children. His father, Mario, was an accountant and his mother, Regina, was a “committed wife,” according to the Vatican biography.
Francis studied chemistry in college and was ordained as a priest in 1969, entering the Jesuit order. He obtained degrees in philosophy and theology from Colegio de San Jose in San Miguel, teaching literature and psychology in Argentinian colleges. While he often butted heads with fellow Jesuits, he rose through the church in Argentina, eventually serving as a bishop.
In 2001, Pope John Paul II appointed him as a cardinal. He asked people not to go to Rome to celebrate his new title, his Vatican biography said, but to use what they would have spent on the trip to donate to the poor.
Over a decade ago, he was so sure he wouldn’t be elected pope that he almost missed the final vote altogether while speaking with another cardinal outside the Sistine Chapel.
“The master of ceremonies came out and said ‘Are you going in or not?’” Francis recalled in a recent interview with The Associated Press. “I realized afterward that it was my unconscious resistance to going in.”
He was elected the 266th pope on the next ballot.
Contributing: Reuters
