Pope Francis, who passed away on Monday at the age of 88, will be remembered as a transformative pontiff, a champion of the marginalized, who reshaped the Catholic Church with compassion while navigating the complexities of centuries-old dogma.
Dubbed “the people’s Pope,” the Argentine pontiff cherished his connection with the faithful and enjoyed widespread popularity, though he faced staunch opposition from traditionalists within the Church.
The first pope from the Americas and the Southern Hemisphere, he ardently defended the most vulnerable, from migrants to communities ravaged by climate change, which he consistently framed as a human-caused crisis.
While he confronted the global scandal of clergy sex abuse, survivors’ groups expressed concerns over the slow pace of concrete measures.
From his election in March 2013, Jorge Mario Bergoglio sought to leave a lasting mark on the Catholic Church.
He became the first pope to adopt the name Francis, after Saint Francis of Assisi, a 13th-century mystic who renounced his wealth to devote his life to the poor.
“How I would like a poor church for the poor,” he declared three days after his election as the 266th pope.
He embodied humility, eschewing opulent papal palaces, wearing simple robes, and making personal phone calls to widows, rape victims, and prisoners.
The football-loving former archbishop of Buenos Aires was more accessible than his predecessors, engaging with young people on issues ranging from social media to pornography, and speaking openly about his health.
Francis consistently left the door open to retirement, following the example of his predecessor Benedict XVI, who in 2013 became the first pontiff since the Middle Ages to step down.
After Benedict’s death in December 2022, Francis became the first sitting pope in modern history to preside over a papal funeral.
He faced increasing health challenges, including colon surgery in 2021, a hernia in June 2023, and bouts of bronchitis and knee pain that required him to use a wheelchair.
His fourth hospitalization, lasting over a month for bronchitis in both lungs, fueled speculation about a potential resignation.
However, he dismissed such talk, stating in February 2023 that papal resignations should not become “a normal thing.”
In a 2024 memoir, he wrote that resignation remained a “distant possibility,” justified only in the event of “a serious physical impediment.”
Kissed Prisoners’ Feet
Before his first Easter at the Vatican, he washed and kissed the feet of prisoners at a Rome prison.
This gesture marked the beginning of a series of powerful symbolic acts that garnered him global admiration, a feat that eluded his predecessor.
For his first foreign trip, Francis chose the Italian island of Lampedusa, a point of entry for thousands of migrants seeking to reach Europe, and condemned the “globalization of indifference.”
He also denounced then-US President Donald Trump’s plans to build a border wall against Mexico as un-Christian.
Following Trump’s re-election, Francis criticized his planned migrant deportations as a “major crisis” that “will end badly.”
In 2016, during Europe’s migration crisis, Francis traveled to the Greek island of Lesbos and returned to Rome with three families of Syrian Muslim asylum seekers.
He was committed to interfaith reconciliation, sharing a historic kiss with Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow in February 2016, and issuing a joint call for freedom of belief with leading Sunni cleric Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb in 2019.
Francis revitalized Vatican diplomacy, facilitating a historic rapprochement between the United States and Cuba, and encouraging the peace process in Colombia.
He also sought to improve relations with China through a historic, though criticized, 2018 agreement on the naming of bishops.
Climate Appeal
Experts credited Francis with influencing the landmark 2015 Paris climate accords through his “Laudato Si” encyclical, a scientifically grounded appeal for action on climate change.
He argued that developed economies bore the responsibility for the impending environmental catastrophe, and in a 2023 appeal, warned that some damage was “already irreversible.”
A proponent of peace, the pontiff consistently condemned arms manufacturers and argued that the world was witnessing a piecemeal Third World War.
However, his interventions were not always well-received, and he sparked outrage from Kyiv by praising those in war-torn Ukraine who had the “courage to raise the white flag and negotiate.”
In his modest rooms at the Vatican’s Casa Santa Marta guesthouse, Francis coped with stress by writing down his problems in letters to Saint Joseph.
“From the moment I was elected I had a very particular feeling of profound peace. And that has never left me,” he said in 2017.
He also enjoyed classical music and tango, occasionally stopping at a record shop in Rome.
‘Who am I to Judge?’
Francis’s admirers credit him with transforming the perception of an institution plagued by scandals when he took office, helping to bring lapsed believers back into the fold.
Critics accused him of dangerously tampering with Catholic doctrine, and he faced strong opposition to many of his reforms.
In 2017, four conservative cardinals issued an almost unprecedented public challenge to his authority, claiming his changes had sown doctrinal confusion among believers.
Francis also pursued reforms within the Vatican, from allowing cardinals to be tried in civilian courts to overhauling the Holy See’s banking system.
He sought to address the devastating issue of clergy sex abuse by meeting with victims and vowing to hold perpetrators accountable.
He opened Vatican archives to civil courts and mandated the reporting of suspected abuse or cover-ups to Church authorities.
However, critics argue that his legacy includes a Church still reluctant to hand over pedophile priests to the police.
‘Raised on Pasta’
Jorge Mario Bergoglio was born into an Italian immigrant family in Flores, a middle-class district of Buenos Aires, on December 17, 1936.
The eldest of five children, he was “born an Argentine but raised on pasta,” wrote biographer Paul Vallely.
Francis later recounted a period of turmoil during his Jesuit training, when he became infatuated with a woman he met at a family wedding.
By then, he had survived a near-fatal infection that resulted in the removal of part of a lung. His impaired breathing prevented him from fulfilling his aspiration of becoming a missionary in Japan.
He was ordained a priest in 1969 and appointed the provincial, or leader, of the Jesuits in Argentina just four years later.
His tenure as leader of the order, which coincided with Argentina’s years of military dictatorship, was fraught with difficulties.
Critics accused him of betraying two radical priests who were imprisoned and tortured by the regime.
While no convincing evidence of these claims surfaced, his leadership of the order proved divisive, leading to his demotion and exile to Cordoba, Argentina’s second-largest city, in 1990.
In his 50s, Bergoglio underwent what most biographers consider a midlife crisis.
He emerged to embark on a new career within the mainstream Catholic hierarchy, reinventing himself first as the “Bishop of the Slums” in Buenos Aires and later as the pope who would break the mold.
