The Life Of Pope Francis

Pope Francis was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from March 13, 2013 until his death at 7.35 am on Easter Monday, April 21, 2025. He served as the 266th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church whose historic election was followed by his embrace of social issues. Pope Francis was the first Pope from the Americas and took his papal title after Saint Francis of Assisi of Italy. Prior to his election as Pope, he spent more than a decade as Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church of Argentina and Archbishop of Buenos Aires. Pope Francis was also President of the Bishops’ Conference of Argentina from 2005 to 2011. He was named Person of the Year by Time magazine in 2013. 
Pope Francis who had as birth name, Jorge Mario Bergoglio was born on December 17, 1936, in Buenos Aires. His parents were immigrants from Italy, and he was the eldest of five siblings. When he was 16, Jorge had an encounter at the Basilica of St. Joseph in Buenos Aires which he described as, feeling an urge to go inside as though someone had pulled him in. This spurred his desire for priesthood. After 13 years of study, in 1952, he was ordained as a priest. 
Pope Francis’ tenure was characterized by humility, emphasis on God’s mercy, concern for the world’s poor and marginalised people and commitment to interreligious dialogue. He also advocated in areas of political diplomacy and environmentalism.  As Pope, he was open discussions on divisive issues such as abortion and homosexuality while focusing on climate change, poverty and migration. His first papal trip was to Lampedusa, an Italian island that had become a beacon for asylum seekers and migrants. In 2014 while addressing sex abuse, Pope Francis established a commission to address the church’s clerical sexual-abuse scandals. It included victims of abuse and sought to hold bishops accountable, but the effort eventually fell apart. The Pope sought closer relations with other religions, especially in places where Catholics were at risk of persecution. In 2017 at a conference in Cairo, the Pope denounced “demagogic forms of populi...