Pope Francis has died: From Simple Pastor to Reforming Pontiff to 'House of the Father'
- Roxanne King
- 4 hours ago
- 12 min read
Pope Francis, the pontiff of many firsts, including taking his name after “the little poor one” of Assisi, with whom he shared a love for the poor, for creation, and a commitment to reform, died Monday. He was 88 and had served as pontiff for a dozen years.
Hospitalized on February 14 for bronchitis, he was also diagnosed with pneumonia and a complex lung infection. His condition remained critical, despite slight improvements. He was released from the hospital and returned to the Vatican on March 23.
His age and related declining health were contributing factors to his death. The pope had half a lung removed as a young man and was susceptible to respiratory illness. In recent years, he also had colon surgery and a hernia operation.
Throughout his final illness, the Vatican noted that Pope Francis remained in high spirits, worked and maintained his good sense of humor.
“Bishop Jorge Rodriguez and I are grateful to God for Pope Francis’ powerful example of humility, prayer and service to the Church for the past twelve years," stated Denver Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila. "From the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy in 2015 to his prayer in St. Peter's Square during COVID to this ordinary Jubilee of Hope this year, from his weekly Angelus messages to his encyclicals and writings, he continually called us to encounter Jesus Christ, to accompany others as Christ did with mercy and tenderness, and to draw near to the Father’s heart in this apostolic age.
"His special emphasis on seeking out the lost and marginalized has encouraged many to encounter Jesus, who is our Savior, the Way, the Truth and the Life. As we mourn his passing, may we remember his call to preach the Gospel courageously, joyfully and full of hope. Yesterday, as we celebrated Easter, Pope Francis reminded us, ‘All those who put their hope in God place their feeble hands in his strong and mighty hand; they let themselves be raised up and set out on a journey. Together with the risen Jesus, they become pilgrims of hope, witnesses of the victory of love and of the disarmed power of Life.’ Let us be those who set out on mission to proclaim Jesus Christ Risen to our world! Please join Bishop Rodriguez and me in praying for Pope Francis’ peaceful repose in the hands of the Father. May he and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.”
Jorge Mario Bergoglio was born on December 17, 1936, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Mario and Regina (Sivori) Bergoglio as the first of five children. His parents were Italian immigrants — his father an accountant and his mother a homemaker. Excelling in science, he attended a technical high school, where he earned a diploma as a chemical technician.
At 21, he began priestly formation at the diocesan seminary in Buenos Aires, but on March 11, 1958, he entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus. In 1963 and 1970, respectively, he earned degrees in philosophy and theology, studying in Argentina, Chile and Spain. Between acquiring the degrees, he taught literature and psychology. He was ordained a priest on Dec. 13, 1969.
He served as provincial of the Jesuits in Argentina from 1973-1979. He then served six years as a seminary rector and parish priest. In 1986, he completed a doctorate in theology in Freiburg, Germany.
Elevated to the episcopacy in 1992, he was named Archbishop of Buenos Aires and Primate of Argentina in 1998. Pope John Paul II created him cardinal in 2001.
Elected pope on March 13, 2013 — about two weeks after the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI — Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the former cardinal archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina, became the first pope from the New World, the first from Latin America and the first from the Jesuit order. He was also the first pope ordained a priest after the Second Vatican Council.
Lover of the Poor
Upon realizing he had been elected to the papacy, his friend Cardinal Claudio Hummes whispered to him, “Don’t forget the poor,” which inspired then-Cardinal Bergoglio to call himself after St. Francis of Assisi.
“For me, he is the man of poverty, the man of peace, the man who loves and protects creation; these days, we do not have a very good relationship with creation, do we?” Pope Francis told reporters three days after his election. “He is the man who gives us this spirit of peace, the poor man…. How I would like a Church which is poor and for the poor!”
Beloved in Buenos Aires as a “simple pastor” who used public transportation and lived in a small apartment rather than the grand archbishop’s home he was entitled to, he continued his austere lifestyle as pontiff. When introduced to the crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square the night of his election, Pope Francis wore a white cassock, having declined the traditional red, velvet cape. Before giving his first blessing, he led the people in prayers for Pope Emeritus Benedict. Then, he asked them to pray for him, silently, as he bowed.
Rather than taking up residence in the apostolic palace of past popes, he chose to live at Casa Santa Marta, a guesthouse at the Vatican. He even wore new black shoes to the conclave where he was elected pope only because friends gifted them to him, insisting his worn shoes were not suitable for the occasion.
Merciful Pastor
His call to priesthood came unexpectedly, shortly before his 17th birthday. On Sept. 21, 1953, the Feast of St. Matthew, he went to confession while on his way to meet friends for a celebration. Afterward, he deeply felt God’s mercy and a call to the priesthood.
To commemorate that moment, for his episcopal and papal motto, Pope Francis chose a phrase from Venerable Bede’s homily on the call of Matthew, which is read on the apostle’s feast day in the Liturgy of the Hours: “With mercy chosen.” The phrase comes from St. Bede’s commentary: “Jesus saw the tax collector and, because he saw him through the eyes of mercy and chose him, he said to him: ‘Follow me.’”
“Here, this is me: a sinner to whom the Lord has turned his eyes. And this is what I said when they asked me if I would accept my election as pope,” Pope Francis told Jesuit Father Antonio Spadaro in a 2013 interview.
The pope described his experience of God’s mercy as central to his religious experience. It was a primary teaching of his papacy. He saw the Church as a merciful “field hospital.” He proclaimed a Jubilee Year of Mercy from 2015-2016 and published a companion book, The Name of God is Mercy, with Vatican reporter Andrea Tornielli. The multi-lingual pope wrote or gave interviews for many books during and prior to his papacy, including a memoir, Hope, released this year.
In 2016, he gave authority to all priests to forgive abortions — a faculty previously limited to bishops and select confessors unless otherwise provided by local bishops — making the previous dispensation he granted during the Mercy Year permanent. The pope emphasized that abortion is still “a grave sin,” but “there is no sin that God’s mercy cannot reach and wipe away when it finds a repentant heart seeking to be reconciled with the Father.”
Joyful Preacher
Evangelization
Pope Francis’ first apostolic exhortation, The Joy of the Gospel, addresses how to evangelize in the modern world. The 2013 document emphasizes that the Church is missionary and urges all the faithful to live and share the Gospel with joy enthusiastically. It stresses that pastors should be so close to their flock that they “smell of the sheep.”
Lumen Fidei (The Light of Faith), Pope Francis’ first encyclical, also published in 2013, emphasizes the centrality of faith as a guiding light in human life, especially for the mission of the Church and her call to preach the Gospel. “Faith is not a private act,” the Holy Father wrote of the theological virtue, pointing out that it is “necessarily ecclesial” and “professed from within the body of Christ as a concrete communion of believers,” as he encouraged the Church to engage in a deeper understanding of God’s truth in the world.
Care for Creation
In 2015, he published the encyclical Laudato Si (Praise be to you), subtitled “On Caring for Our Common Home.” Addressed to “every person living on the planet,” it highlights critical environmental concerns, notes that ecological ruin hurts the poor the most, and exhorts people to care for the environment.
Marriage and Family
His 2016 apostolic exhortation, Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love), is based on discussions of two synods on the family and speaks to various matters families face. It generated controversy for remarks in Chapter 8 regarding communion for the divorced and remarried.
Fiducia Supplicans (Supplicating Trust), subtitled “On the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings,” is a 2023 doctrinal document from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and signed by Pope Francis that permits priests to spontaneously bless people in “irregular” relationships, including same-sex ones. A controversial declaration, it was sure to emphasize that Church teaching on marriage remains firm and the blessing of the persons does not signify approval of the union.
Community
Fratelli Tutti (Brothers All), his third encyclical, was released in 2020 on the feast of St. Francis of Assisi during the COVID-19 pandemic. In it, he urges fraternity and social friendship among individuals and institutions to build a more just and peaceful world and denounces war and global indifference.
Migration
Four months after his election, Pope Francis’ first pastoral visit outside Rome was to Italy’s island of Lampedusa, where he first highlighted the perilous plight of migrants that remained a priority of his papacy. He did the same in early 2016 at the U.S.-Mexico border and two months later at a refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos. When he departed Lesbos, he permitted a dozen Syrian Muslim refugees to travel back to Rome with him on the papal plane.
In February, he sent a letter to the U.S. bishops about the current migration crisis and mass deportations, encouraging them to continue to advocate on behalf of migrants and refugees. Acknowledging “the right of a nation to defend itself and keep communities safe,” he denounced “deporting people who have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution” and environmental decline.
Trust in God
In 2020, the pandemic led to the moving experience of a solitary Pope Francis praying for the world as night fell over an empty St. Peter’s Square during a steady rain on March 27, 2020.
“We have realized we are in the same boat, all of us fragile and disoriented … all of us now called to row together,” the Holy Father said during that global moment of prayer. “Let us hand our fears over to him so that he can conquer them. … Because this is God’s strength: turning to the good everything that happens to us, even the bad things. He brings serenity into our storms because, with God, life never dies.”
Holiness
In 2018, Pope Francis published Gaudete et Exultate (Rejoice and be glad), an apostolic exhortation calling the faithful to pursue holiness in their everyday lives. He emphasizes that holiness is not a privilege reserved to the few, but the vocation proper to all believers, especially in ordinary, modern life. Through constant prayer and by living the Beatitudes and Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy, Christians can combat indifference and apathy to live out their faith concretely in the modern world.
Charity, Love for God
He published his fourth encyclical, Dilexit nos (He loved us), in October 2024. In it, the pope focuses on “the human and divine love of the heart of Jesus,” reflecting that “authentic devotion” to the Sacred Heart leads us to “truly come at last to know ourselves and we learn how to love.” Pope Francis said the work goes with his earlier social encyclicals. “For it is by drinking of that same love that we become capable of forging bonds of fraternity, of recognizing the dignity of each human being, and of working together to care for our common home.”
Bridge-Building, Peace-, History-, and Saint-Making Pilgrim
According to the Catholic News Service, by his 10th anniversary as pope in 2023, he had visited 60 nations in 40 foreign trips, named 121 cardinals — including many from previously unrepresented countries — and canonized 911 saints, including 800 martyrs.
Popes John Paul II, John XXIII and Paul VI, Archbishop Oscar Romero and Mother Teresa of Calcutta are among those Pope Francis canonized. So, too, are the first married couple to be canonized together, Louis and Zelie Martin, the parents of St. Therese of Lisieux.
In 2017, Pope Francis added a new category leading to sainthood called “offering of life.” This category acknowledges the holiness of those who die prematurely by offering their lives out of Christian charity.
In 2015, during his first visit to the United States, Pope Francis became the first pontiff to address a joint session of Congress. While in Washington, D.C., he also canonized St. Junipero Serra. He then attended the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia.
In 2024, Pope Francis primarily used a wheelchair to get around due to hip and knee pain. Even so, he took a 12-day trip in September 2024 — the longest of his papacy in distance and days away from Rome — to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and Singapore. Later, he visited Luxembourg, Belgium and Corsica.
Bridge-Builder
Pope Francis’ U.S. visit followed a trip to Cuba. His diplomacy is credited with facilitating the normalization of U.S.-Cuba relations after 54 years of hostility.
As a religious bridge-builder, in 2016, Pope Francis signed the Havana Declaration with Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, calling for restored unity between the two churches. He signed the Abu Dhabi agreement in 2019 with leading Sunni Muslim cleric Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, grand imam of Egypt’s Al-Azhar Mosque, pledging mutual respect and peaceful coexistence. He signed a joint declaration in 2021 with top Shiite Muslim leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, that denounced extremism and violence during a first-ever papal visit to Iraq.
Peace-Maker
As a peacemaker, in 2022, Pope Francis took the unusual step of visiting the Russian embassy in the Vatican to voice concern over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He repeatedly called for talks to end the fighting and exhorted the faithful to fast and pray for peace. He did the same during the 2023-2025 Israel-Hamas war. He made a 2015 trip to the Central African Republic to promote peace — the first papal visit by a pontiff to an active war zone.
In 2022, he and two other Christian leaders made a “pilgrimage of peace” to the war-torn nations of the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan. In an extraordinary plea for peace, Pope Francis kissed the feet of South Sudan’s opposing leaders during a 2019 retreat at the Vatican.
Reformer
The pope made a “penitential pilgrimage” to Canada in 2022, offering a historic apology on behalf of the Church for sins committed at residential schools. “I humbly beg forgiveness,” he said, “for the evil committed by so many Christians against the indigenous peoples.”
Three years prior, Pope Francis summoned bishops and religious superiors to the Vatican for a conference on protecting minors in the Church after clergy sex abuse scandals with episcopal cover-up surfaced in the United States, Chile and Europe. Focused on accountability and transparency, the summit resulted in the Vos Estis norms mandating bishops, priests and members of religious orders worldwide to report abuse or cover-up. The law was expanded to include leaders of Vatican-recognized lay associations and was made permanent in 2023.
His promulgation of the apostolic constitution, Praedicate Evangelium (Preach the Gospel) in 2022, reformed the Roman Curia. The new constitution emphasizes evangelization and allows lay people to head Vatican departments.
From the beginning of his papacy, Pope Francis sought to make the activities of the Institute for the Works of Religion, commonly called the “Vatican Bank,” which had a history of secrecy and malfeasance, more transparent. His reform efforts were amplified when a scandal came to light in 2019 that resulted in the conviction of a high-ranking cardinal for fraud and embezzlement. The pope restructured the Vatican Bank and won praise for implementing practices of transparency in accord with the international financial community.
Synodal Leader
Some Vatican watchers point to Pope Francis’ massive, multi-year Synod of Bishops on Synodality — a summit for bishops and laity to prayerfully discuss issues and make recommendations — as the apex of his papacy. With Greek origins, synod means “journeying together.”
“’Church and synod are synonymous’ inasmuch as the Church is nothing other than the journeying together of God’s flock along the paths of history towards the encounter with Christ the Lord,” Pope Francis said in 2015, as he called for “synodal Church.”
The Synod on Synodality process began in 2021 with interviews with Catholics around the world. Prior to convening the Synod on Synodality, Pope Francis held synods on the family, youth, the Church, and the pan-Amazon region. In 2018, he promulgated the apostolic constitution Episcopalis Communion, which opened synod participation to laity and religious women as voting members.
That privilege was first used at the first global session of the Synod on Synodality held at the Vatican from Oct. 4-29, 2023. Nearly one-fourth of the 364 members were not bishops; 54 were women. Members reunited at the Vatican for the final four-week session in October 2024, during which they approved a final document. In a break with tradition, the pope adopted the document on the final day of the Synod and directed it be published immediately, foregoing publishing a separate post-synodal document. As key priorities for the Church, the document urges increased leadership roles for women and greater participation of the laity in decision-making and governing bodies.
Hopeful Witness
On Christmas Eve, 2024, he opened the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica, inaugurating the 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope. The jubilee marks the 2,025th anniversary of the birth of Christ, who is “our hope” (1 Tim 1:1).
“The ‘holy door’ of God’s heart lies open before you,” Pope Francis said in his homily ushering in the jubilee. “Jesus, God-with-us, is born for you, for us, for every man and woman. With him, joy flourishes; with him, life changes; with him, hope does not disappoint.”
Throughout his prolonged illness, the Vatican noted that Pope Francis remained in high spirits, and those with whom he spoke commented that the pope maintained his good sense of humor.
