His Holiness Pope Francis, the reform-minded Supreme Head of the Roman Catholic church, who guided the universal church through an era of crisis, died Monday, April 21, a day after appearing at St. Peter’s Square to offer members of the public an Easter blessing. He was 88 years old.
“Dearest brothers and sisters, with deep sorrow I must announce the death of our Holy Father Francis,” Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the Vatican camerlengo, said in announcement. “At 7:35 this morning, the Bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the house of the Father. His entire life was dedicated to the service of the Lord and of His Church. He taught us to live the values of the Gospel with fidelity, courage, and universal love, especially in favor of the poorest and most marginalized. With immense gratitude for his example as a true disciple of the Lord Jesus, we commend the soul of Pope Francis to the infinite merciful love of the One and Triune God.”
According to the Vatican, the Pope died from stroke that put him on a coma, more than two months after he was hospitalized for double pneumonia.
Pope Francis made his last public appearance at St. Peter’s Square on Easter Sunday, after a prolonged hospitalization due to a respiratory issue that had developed into double pneumonia.
The last world leader he met before his death was U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance, a Roman Catholic, at the Vatican on Easter Sunday. While the last royals he met were King Charles III and Queen Camilla on April 9 at his private apartment in Vatican.
After the Vatican made public his passing on Monday, world leaders, royals, and members of the public (Catholics and non-Catholics) mourned the Roman Pontiff's passing, most of them expressing sadness and sense of loss. Pope Francis was not only a leader of the Catholic Church but also a head of state.
Messages of condolences have poured in from world leaders and spiritual leaders from different religions. Meanwhile, royals around the world also expressed their sadness:
King Charles III of UK:
“His Holiness will be remembered for his compassion, his concern for the unity of the Church and for his tireless commitment to the common causes of all people of faith, and to those of goodwill who work for the benefit of others. … The Queen and I remember with particular affection our meetings with His Holiness over the years and we were greatly moved to have been able to visit him earlier in the month.”
King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden:
"The Queen and I remember Pope Francis with great respect and warmth. In Power of his natural charisma, deep humility, and his never-failing defense of human value, the Pope was a significant leader".
King Philippe of the Belgians:
“It is with great sadness that we learned of the passing of Pope Francis. He was a great man, close to the most humble and concerned about the world's problems,” the Belgian king and queen wrote. “We share the grief of all Catholics around the world and all those who loved and appreciated him. We also express our gratitude for the honor he bestowed upon us by visiting our country.”
King Frederik X of Denmark:
"It is with profound sorrow that the Queen and I have learned the passing of His Holiness Pope Francis. We have fond memories from our meeting with His Holiness in 2018 at the Vatican. We will remember him as a pope dedicated to promoting peace, justice, and always advocating for people living in vulnerable situation".
King Willem-Alexander of The Netherlands whose wife, Queen Maxima, is a Catholic Argentinian, said:
"We are deeply affected by the death of Pope Francis. We warmly remember the personal meetings with him, among others, during our state visit to the Holy See in 2017. Pope Francis radiated mercy in everything. From a rock-solid belief in God's love, he advocated for compassion and humanity".
King Felipe VI of Spain:
“Upon receiving, with profound sadness, the news of the death of His Holiness Pope Francis, I wish to convey to you, on my behalf, on behalf of the Government, and on behalf of the Spanish people, our deepest condolences,” King Felipe wrote in a telegram to Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, Dean of the College of Cardinals. “Throughout his pontificate, His Holiness Pope Francis has borne witness to the importance that love of neighbor, fraternity, and social friendship have for the world of our century,” the Spanish king continued. “We will always continue to be inspired by his conviction in the need to bring encouragement and comfort to the poorest and most needy, and by the importance he attached to dialogue and consensus in order to achieve a more just and united world.”
Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg:
The Grand Duchess and I are deeply saddened by the announcement of the death of His Holiness Pope Francis. An even greater sadness that we still had the honor and immense joy of welcoming him on an official visit to Luxembourg last September 2024. Pope Francis was a man of great compassion, sharing the ills and sufferings of others, constantly concerned about the problems of the most disadvantaged peope as well as refugees. He was devoted to the most vulnerable, while remaining attentive to the hopes of the youth".
Albert II, the Sovereign Prince of Monaco:
It is with infinite sadness and deep sorrow that we learned of the death of His Holiness Pope Francis on this Easter Monday. Particularly moved, my family, myself, and the Principality would like to express our deepest condolences to the Catholic Church and all the faithful with whom we share a great wisdom".
Queen Rania of Jordan who last met Pope Francis in February this year during the World Summit for Children's Rights at the Vatican, said:
"In a world that can often feel heartless, Pope Francis always had love to spare - for the less fortunate, refugee families, and children in war zones, in Gaza and around the world. Humanity has lost an invaluable champion for peace and compassion today. May he rest in peace"
Princess Madeleine of Sweden attended the World Summit for Children's Rights at the Vatican in February this year, said:
"Dear Pope Francis, thank you for the compassion and courage you showed in defending vulnerable and exploited children. Your voice gave hope to those who felt invisible, and your action helped bring safety, dignity, and love to so many who had known only pain."
Pope Francis was elected Pope and Sovereign Head of the State of Vatican in March 2013, following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI.
The many firsts of Pope Francis:
His papacy marked with so many firsts: the first pope from the Americas; the first non-European pope in over 1000 years; the first pope from the Southern Hemisphere; the first pope from the developing world; the first Pope to attend a G7 summit; the first Pope to visit Iraq; the first Jesuit pope, and the first pope to take the name Francis after Saint Francis of Assisi, who was famous for his ministry to the poor.
His papacy also reflected a first in terms of his willingness to hear out different points of view on controversial issues including marriage, sexuality, the priesthood, and celibacy in the church that his predecessors weren’t willing to debate.
While none of the major church traditions were tossed out during his tenure, and at a time when the child sex abuse scandal that has plagued the church for years created a crisis of conscience particularly among young Catholics, Pope Francis stood out for exuding a certain level of empathy, humility, and mercy that people felt connected to in a way they said they never felt with past popes.
He served as the world’s conscience. In 2022, after Russia invaded Ukraine, he strongly urged President Vladimir Putin to “stop this spiral of violence and death” and avoid the “absurd” risk of nuclear war.
During the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, he condemned the air strikes and called for peace. In 2013 after his election to the Papacy, TIME magazine named him “Person of the Year,” because he “changed the tone and perception and focus of one of the world’s largest institutions in an extraordinary way.”
Early life
Jorge Mario Bergoglio was born on December 17, 1936, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. His parents were Italian immigrants who fled Benito Mussolini’s fascist regime. His grandmother had the biggest influence on him, according to biographer Austen Ivereigh, who wrote in Wounded Shepherd: Pope Francis and His Struggle to Convert the Catholic Church that “it was an austere but happy lower middle-class family life.”
He then attended the technical secondary school Escuela Técnica Industrial Nº 27 Hipólito Yrigoyen and graduated with a chemical technician's diploma. In that capacity, he spent several years working in the food section of Hickethier-Bachmann Laboratory, where he worked under Esther Ballestrino. Earlier, he had been a bouncer and a janitor.
When he was 21 years old, after life-threatening pneumonia and three cysts, Bergoglio had part of a lung excised. According to an article of TIME magazine, Bergoglio first contemplated the priesthood as a preteen, writing to one girl he admired, Amalia Damonte, “If I don’t become a priest, I’ll marry you.”
The "sign" came a few years later, at age 16. While on his way to meet classmates from the vocational school where he studied chemistry, he passed San José de Flores Church in Buenos Aires.
He went into the confessional booth and came out of it convinced that he should become a priest. “I felt I had to enter: It was one of those things one feels inside and one doesn’t know why,” he said in a 2012 Buenos Aires radio interview. “I felt like someone grabbed me from inside and took me to the confessional,” he said. He ended up going home instead of going out with his friends because he felt “overwhelmed.”
Despite that realization, he later admitted he continued to contemplate his future before entering the seminary. “God left the door open for me for a few years,” he says in the 2010 compilation of interviews Pope Francis: Conversations with Jorge Bergoglio by Francesca Ambrogetti and Sergio Rubin. “Religious vocation is a call from God to your heart, whether you are waiting for it consciously or unconsciously.”
On Dec. 13, 1969—four days before his 33rd birthday—he was ordained as a priest with the Society of Jesus, the largest religious order for Catholic men in the world better known as the Jesuits. He continued his studies at the University of Alcalá in Spain, and then returned to Argentina to a seminary in the city of San Miguel, where he oversaw the new seminary students and taught theology.
Before the Papacy
As pope, he was noted to have an openness to his decision-making that differed from his papal predecessors. His style can be traced back to moments when he made unpopular decisions in Argentina, which led to a personal evolution.
A few years into the priesthood, in 1973, he became the leader, or Provincial, of the Jesuits in Argentina at just 36 years old. Soon after, he was embroiled in a crisis that could have jeopardized his career amid one of the most tumultuous periods in Argentina’s history.
In June 1992, Pope John Paul II named Bergoglio auxiliary bishop in Buenos Aires, on the recommendation of the city’s archbishop, Antonio Quarracino, to whom he had grown close. Pope John Paul II made Jorge Mario Bergoglio a cardinal during a consistory in St. Peter’s Square on Feb. 21, 2001.
Setting a new tone as Pope
On Feb. 11, 2013, Pope Benedict XVI became the first pope to announce his resignation in about 600 years, since Gregory XII in 1415. The College of Cardinals elected Bergoglio on March 13th on the fifth ballot in one of the fastest papal conclaves.
“Clearly the Cardinals were looking for something and someone different, and so his very otherness may have been appealing,” James Martin, the Jesuit priest and editor-at-large at America, wrote for TIME.com two days after Bergoglio was elected pope.
On the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, as he addressed the crowd, Pope Francis joked about his Latin American origins. It seemed, he said, that the Cardinals had to go to the ‘ends of the earth’ to find a Pope. But often someone from the margins is just what the center needs.”
Initially, there was concern about whether he could breathe new life into the church if he was missing a lung—the Vatican clarified that part of his lung was removed after a bout of severe pneumonia when he was a 21-year-old seminary student.
He was seen as more open-minded—less doctrinaire—on pressing lifestyle questions among churchgoers. While Pope Benedict described homosexuality in 2005 as “an objective disorder” and “a strong tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil,” Francis made headlines in 2013 for saying, “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?”
With the Pope's passing, many observers expressed concerns about whether his successor will continue the reforms he introduced in the church or steer the universal church back into the traditional, more conservative approach. The Pope will be laid to rest on April 26, 2025, Saturday, and the Conclave to elect the new pope will be held no more than 15 days later.
Sending our prayers for the eternal repose of His Holiness's soul. Thank you for the wisdom you imparted and the legacy of humility, kindness, compassion, and generosity.
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