Pope Francis was elected March 13, 2013. In the past 10 years, he has made 40 trips abroad, visiting 60 countries; in eight consistories he created 95 cardinals under the age of 80 and eligible to vote in a conclave and paid tribute to 26 churchmen over the age of 80; and he has presided over the canonizations of 911 new saints, including a group of more than 800 martyrs, but also Saints John Paul II, John XXIII and Paul VI.
Pope Francis prays at a cross on the border between El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, before celebrating Mass Feb. 17, 2016. The pope has made migration, a dominant social issue in Latin America, a central theme of his pontificate. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)Pope Francis blesses Janada Marcus, a survivor of Christian persecution in Nigeria, after his general audience March 8, 2023. She is accompanied by Father Joseph Bature Fidelis, director of a trauma center for victims of terrorism in Nigeria. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)Pope Francis greets a baby as he rides around St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican before his weekly general audience March 8, 2023. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)Pope Francis, Patriarch Bartholomew and Archbishop Ieronymos (not visible) throw wreaths into the sea during a service in memory of migrants who have died trying to reach Europe, on the island of Lesbos, Greece, April 16, 2016. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)Pope Francis poses for a picture with staff members of the Vatican newspaper’s monthly insert dedicated to women during an audience at the Vatican March 4, 2023. The supplement, “Women, church, world,” was launched in May in 2012. The pope praised and encouraged them in their work, saying “it is not a kind of clerical feminism of the pope, no! It is opening the door to a reality, a reflection that goes deeper.” (CNS photo/Vatican Media)Pope Francis laughs as he jokingly asks the congregation a question while celebrating Mass with bishops, priests and members of religious orders in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Manila, Philippines, Jan. 16, 2015. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)Pope Francis greets a group of Ukrainian children at the end of his weekly general audience Feb. 22, 2023, in the Vatican audience hall. During the audience, the pope noted that the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is Feb. 24 and prayed for an end to the war. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)Pope Francis goes to confession during a Lenten penance service in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican March 25, 2022, as part of the “24 Hours for the Lord” Lenten prayer initiative. This year, the Vatican said, he will open the annual service at a parish in Rome March 17. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)Pope Francis kisses the hand of residential school survivor Alma Desjarlais of the Frog Lake First Nation during a welcoming ceremony at Edmonton International Airport July 24, 2022. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)Pope Francis meets with heads of departments of the Roman Curia at the Vatican May 18, 2015, seven years before he finalized his reorganization of the Curia, emphasizing its role of serving the pope and the world’s bishops in their mission of evangelization. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)Pope Francis drinks mate, the traditional Argentine herbal tea, as he greets the crowd during his general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican June 6, 2018. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)Pope Francis kisses the foot of an inmate after washing it during the Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord’s Supper at a prison in Civitavecchia, Italy, April 14, 2022. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)Pope Francis embraces a sick child during an audience in the Paul VI hall at the Vatican Nov. 14, 2014. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)Pope Francis participates in a memorial prayer for the victims of the war at Hosh al-Bieaa (church square) in Mosul, Iraq, March 7, 2021. The pope became the first to visit the Middle Eastern country, where he called for interfaith unity and reconciliation after Christians were the target of violence committed by the Islamic State for nearly two decades. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)Pope Francis greets Jesuit Father James Martin, author and editor at large of America magazine, during a private meeting at the Vatican in this Oct. 1, 2019, file photo. Father Martin, a consultor to the Vatican Dicastery for Communication, ministers extensively to LGBTQ persons. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)Pope Francis blesses inmate Ron Cianci during a visit to the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility in Philadelphia Sept. 27, 2015. (CNS photo/Todd Heisler, pool)Pope Francis names Salesian Sister Alessandra Smerilli as secretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. Sister Smerilli is pictured meeting the pope at the Vatican in an undated photo. (CNS photo/Vatican Media, courtesy Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development)Pope Francis gestures as he rides in his wheelchair during his general audience in the Paul VI hall at the Vatican Aug. 17, 2022. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)Pope Francis arrives in a golf cart to visit the destroyed Al-Tahera Syriac Catholic Church in Mosul, Iraq, March 7, 2021. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)Pope Francis touches the casket of Pope Benedict XVI at the conclusion of his funeral Mass in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican Jan. 5, 2023. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)Pope Francis bows his head in prayer during his election night appearance on the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican March 13, 2013. The crowd joined the pope in silent prayer after he asked them to pray that God would bless him. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)Pope Francis, U.S. President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle greet the crowd from the south portico of the White House in Washington Sept. 23, 2015. (OSV News photo/CNS file, L’Osservatore Romano, handout)Pope Francis greets religious leaders during a meeting with Christian leaders and the leaders of other religions at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand, Nov. 22, 2019. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)Pope Francis greets an elderly woman as he meets with people in Asuncion, Paraguay, in this July 12, 2015, file photo. The pope’s prayer intention for the month of July, dedicated to the elderly, was released June 30, 2022, by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)Pope Francis gives one of his documents to U.S. President Joe Biden during a meeting at the Vatican in this file photo from Oct. 29, 2021. The pope gives visiting heads of state copies of his major texts. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)Pope Francis dons a traditional Indigenous headdress during a meeting with First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities at Maskwacis, Canada, July 25, 2022. The pope travelled to Canada
on a “penitential pilgrimage” and apologized for the role of Catholics in operating residential schools for Indigenous Canadians where physical and sexual abuse was commonplace.(CNS photo/Paul Haring)Pope Francis celebrates Mass at Ndolo airport in Kinshasa, Congo, Feb. 1, 2023. According to Congolese authorities, over 1 million people attended the Mass. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)Pope Francis wears a traditional Japanese shirt he received as a gift during a meeting with young people
at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Tokyo, Japan, Nov. 25, 2019. The pope’s trip to Thailand and Japan was his last
before the COVID-19 pandemic forced him to postpone his travels in 2020. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)Pope Francis gives one of his documents to U.S. President Joe Biden during a meeting at the Vatican in this file photo from Oct. 29, 2021. The pope gives visiting heads of state copies of his major texts. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)Pope Francis greets the faithful from his wheelchair after celebrating Ash Wednesday Mass Feb. 22, 2023, at Rome’s Basilica of Santa Sabina. While the pope delivered the homily at Mass, he did not take part in the traditional procession before the Mass from the nearby Church of St. Anselm on the Aventine Hill because a painful knee has limited his mobility. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)A boy takes a selfie with Pope Francis as the pope meets children before celebrating Mass at St. Mary Josefa Parish in Rome Feb. 19, 2017. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)Pope Francis signs a Ukrainian flag for a Ukrainian child at the end of his weekly general audience Feb. 22, 2023, in the Vatican audience hall. During the audience, the pope noted that the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is Feb. 24 and prayed for an end to the war. (CNS photo/Vatican MediaPope Francis greets a child at the end of a meeting with members of the Pontifical Academy for Life Feb. 20, 2023, in the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)Pope Francis walks with Rafael Correa, then-president of Ecuador, during an arrival ceremony at Mariscal Sucre International Airport in Quito, Ecuador, July 5, 2015. Pope Francis has returned to his native Latin America six times in the 10 years of his pontificate. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)
