Pope Francis dies aged 88

Pope Francis, the 266th Catholic Church leader who?tried to position the church to be more inclusive, died on Easter Monday, Vatican officials confirmed. He was 88.

Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the Vatican camerlengo, announced the news in a statement: ?At 7:35 this morning, the Bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the home 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 faithfulness, courage, and universal love, especially for 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 God, One and Tribune.?

Francis,?who had a portion of one lung removed as a young man,?was hospitalized at Rome?s Gemelli Hospital on Feb. 14 with?bronchitis, which led to double pneumonia and?several respiratory crises.?

He spent 38 days there, the longest hospitalization of his 12-year papacy, but had been released from hospital on March 23. On Easter Sunday, Francis came out of convalescence to bless thousands of people on St. Peter?s Square.

Born Jorge Mario Bergolio in Argentina on Dec. 17, 1936, Francis initially trained to become a chemist. He was also?known to love tango, which he danced in his youth, before becoming a priest.

After experiencing life-threatening pneumonia at 21, Bergoglio committed himself to religion, joining the Society of Jesus, or the Jesuits, in 1958. After being ordained as a priest in 1969, he worked his way up to become the archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998 before being elected a cardinal in 2001.

Bergolio was appointed pope in 2013, following the resignation of his predecessor Pope Benedict XVI. As an Argentinian, Bergolio?s appointment set numerous precedents: he became the first pope to be born outside of Europe since the 8th-century Syrian pope Gregory III, the first pope to be born in the Southern Hemisphere, the first pope born in the Americas and the first Jesuit pope. Upon ordination, he chose Francis as his papal name, after Saint Francis of Assisi.

Shortly after becoming Pope, Francis joined Twitter (now X),?attracting more than 25 million followers in three years. In?2016, he opened an Instagram account, which now has 9.8 million followers.

As pope, Francis gained a reputation for being relatively less formal and conservative by the standards of his position, which caused controversy among traditionalist members of the Church. He declined to stay in the traditional papal apartments in favor of living in the official Vatican guest house, openly criticized consumerism and unregulated capitalism while championing environmental causes and promoted inter-religious dialogue and partnerships. At the same time, though he made sympathetic statements on LGBTQ and women?s rights during his papacy, Francis ultimately maintained the broad traditional views of the Catholic Church regarding same-sex marriage, abortion and the ordination of women as priests.

Though?he fully upheld the church?s position that marriage could exist only between a man and a woman, Francis said during a 2023 Synod of Bishops ? which was open for the first time to women and laypeople ? that priests should exercise ?pastoral charity? when it came to requests for blessings of same-sex marriages, a position welcomed by gay Catholics as a big step forward.?

During his leadership of the Catholic Church, Francis promoted a theology that emphasized God?s mercy and serving the poor and downtrodden. One of his first apostolic exhortations, Evangelii Gaudium, saw him denounce economic inequality, calling on the church to embrace its global diversity. His first encyclical, Laudato si?, proclaimed that climate change was a moral issue caused by unchecked capitalism and the exploitation of human beings and endorsed the rights of Indigenous people.

In 2018, Francis revised the catechism of the Church to fully reject the death penalty, calling it ?inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person.? (BBC)