Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church and Bishop of Rome, died Monday at 88 after an extended battle with a complex respiratory infection.
The Pope passed away just one day after Easter. Despite his ongoing health problems, he made several appearances during Holy Week, including a trip to St. Peter’s Basilica and a visit with Vice President JD Vance on Sunday.
Pope Francis developed bronchitis and a respiratory infection earlier this year, leading to his hospitalization on February 14 at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital. A few days later, the Vatican said he was in critical condition as concerns mounted over the Holy Father’s health.
The Pope’s health took another turn for the worse when he suffered a bronchospasm and experienced vomiting. His lung condition suddenly worsened, requiring mechanical ventilation and fluids to be removed from his lungs. Then, on March 3, Pope Francis had two episodes of accute respiratory insufficiency due to bronchospasm and the accumulation of mucus, the Vatican said.
The Vatican issued daily updates on the Pope’s health, a stark contrast from the lack of transparency surrounding the declining health of St. Pope John Paul II two decades ago. Catholics from around the world came together to pray for Pope Francis’s recovery and put their trust in God’s plan for the direction of the Catholic Church.
Pope Francis struggled with chronic lung problems for most of his life, and began using a wheelchair in 2022 due to knee issues and sciatica. Resignation was never on the table for the late Pontiff despite his repeated health difficulties.
Before his hospitalization, Pope Francis devised a message of hope for this Lent season as Catholics prepare for Easter and celebrate the Jubilee year 2025. He asked Catholics to examine their lives and compare them to the hardship facing refugees and the persecuted worldwide. During his Papacy, Pope Francis was a widely recognized international figure among Catholics and the world at large, and made many trips abroad to meet with world leaders.
Pope Francis, whose pontificate lasted twelve years, was considered a reformist leader and occasionally alienated more traditionalist Catholics with his extended outreach to LGBT people and hostility towards the Traditional Latin Mass.
The late Pontiff also faced criticism for a controversial deal he struck with the Chinese Communist Party on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China. The Vatican extended the deal last year despite continued CCP repression towards Catholic clergy and lay Catholics, including pro-democracy businessman and activist Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong.
During his papacy, Pope Francis shepherded the Catholic Church’s response to numerous high-profile sexual misconduct scandals involving clergy, especially that of disgraced former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who sexually abused adult male seminarians and minors for decades while being a prominent church figure.
Pope Francis denounced the death penalty and called for its abolition, revising the Catechism of the Catholic Church to reflect his position. In line with Catholic teachings, the Pope repeatedly lambasted left-wing gender ideology and abortion in harsh terms.
A champion of dialogue, Pope Francis oversaw the Synod on Synodality and ratified the gathering’s final document last year, a move that was considered unusual. The Synod’s final document focused on conversion and lacked major changes that some church reformers were hoping for.
Throughout his pontificate, Pope Francis emphasized environmental issues and a lax approach to immigration, as shown by his response to Vice President JD Vance last month, a Catholic convert and proponent of President Trump’s mass deportations. Furthermore, Pope Francis pushed for interfaith dialogue and diplomatic solutions to geopolitical issues rather than armed conflict. In recent years, Pope Francis advocated for peace in Ukraine and Gaza, calling Gazan Catholics nightly to express his sympathies.
Pope Francis became Pontiff in March 2013 when a Papal Conclave elected him following the late Pope Benedict XVI’s shock resignation. Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Pope Francis was the first Pope from the Americas and the first from the Jesuits, a nearly 500 year-old Catholic order known for its global evangelization and educational work. A native of Buenos Aires, Argentina, he was the first Pope born outside of Europe since the 8th century.
Pope Francis joined the Jesuits in 1958 after battling pneumonia and almost losing his life. He was ordained a priest in 1969 and became the archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1998. St. Pope John Paul II named Pope Francis a Cardinal in 2001, and he was considered a candidate for the papacy after John Paul II’s passing. Upon becoming Pope, Francis named himself after St. Francis of Assisi because of his concern for the poor, another staple of Francis’s pontificate.
The College of Cardinals will soon hold a Papal Conclave to elect Pope Francis’s successor. Of the 253 Cardinals, 138 of them will be able to participate in voting for the next successor to St. Peter atop the Catholic Church.