Pope Francis dies at 88
Pope Francis died at 7:35 a.m. Rome time, U.S. Cardinal Kevin J. Farrell, chamberlain of the Holy Roman Church, announced.
“His whole life was dedicated to the service of the Lord and his church,” Cardinal Farrell said in a video announcement broadcast from the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae, where Pope Francis lived and where he was recovering from pneumonia and respiratory infections. He had been released from Rome’s Gemelli hospital March 23 after more than five weeks of treatment.
Pope Francis “taught us to live the values of the Gospel with fidelity, courage and universal love, especially in favor of the poorest and most marginalized,” Cardinal Farrell said. “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 the Triune God.”
The day before his death, the pope had appeared on the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica to give his Easter blessing “urbi et orbi” (to the city and the world). His voice was weak and he had trouble raising his arm to make the sign of the cross, but afterward he got into the popemobile and drove through the crowds in St. Peter’s Square.
A series of health issues
The first major health scare of his pontificate came in July 2021 when, after reciting the Sunday Angelus, he went to Rome’s Gemelli hospital for what the Vatican said was pre-scheduled colon surgery. The three-hour operation included a left hemicolectomy, the removal of the descending part of the colon, a surgery that can be recommended to treat diverticulitis, when bulging pouches in the lining of the intestine or colon become inflamed or infected. The pope remained in the hospital 10 days.
Two years later, he was back at Gemelli for what the Vatican said was surgery to correct a hernia. He was taken to the hospital June 7 after his weekly general audience.
Throughout his pontificate, he occasionally canceled events because of bouts of sciatica, a sharp pain that radiates along the path of the sciatic nerve from the lower back and down each leg. But, beginning in late December 2020, he also started having difficulty with his right knee. He later said the problem was a torn ligament and, by early May 2022, he was regularly using a wheelchair. The knee problem also forced him to cancel several events and to postpone a trip to Congo and South Sudan, which he finally made Jan. 31-Feb. 5, 2023.
His surprising election
Elected March 13, 2013, the Argentine cardinal was the first pope in history to come from the Southern Hemisphere and the first non-European elected in almost 1,300 years. The Jesuit was also the first member of his order to be elected pope and the first member of any religious order elected in nearly two centuries.
Cardinal Bergoglio was a known and respected figure within the College of Cardinals, so much so that no one disputed a respected Italian journal’s report that he received the second-highest number of votes on all four ballots cast in the 2005 conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI.
In retrospect, that result made him an obvious candidate at the conclave after Pope Benedict’s resignation eight years later, yet few commentators focused on him in the run-up to the event, particularly because of his age.
His election March 13 came on the second day of the conclave, on its fifth ballot, a surprisingly quick conclusion to an election that apparently had begun with no clear favorite.
A pastor above all
Pope Francis’ focus on the pastoral aspect of his ministry, and the ministry of all priests, led him to shed elements of protocol and even safety concerns that would have distanced him from crowds at his public appearances; he kissed thousands of babies, drank the popular Argentine mate herbal tea whenever anyone in the crowd offered it, and tenderly embraced people with disabling or disfiguring ailments.
Like St. John Paul used to do, Pope Francis also insisted on personally administering the sacrament of reconciliation. Making parish visits in Rome, he arrived early to meet with the parish council, parents of recently baptized babies and usually a group involved in charitable work. But before celebrating Mass, he always left time to hear confessions.
Still, it apparently was a complete surprise, even to Pope Francis’ closest aides, when, at a penance service in 2014 in St. Peter’s Basilica, instead of going to the confessional to hear confessions, he turned and knelt at another confessional to receive absolution first.
He also set aside the usual practice of washing the feet of 12 priests during a public celebration of the Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord’s Supper. Instead, he celebrated smaller Masses — closed to the public — and washed the feet of Catholic and non-Catholic youths at a juvenile detention facility in 2013. Ten years later, he returned to the same jail to wash the feet of young men and women.
For four of the next six years, he celebrated the Mass at Italian prisons, including two in Rome, one in Paliano and one in Velletri. In 2014, he washed the feet of people with severe physical handicaps at a rehabilitation center, and in 2016, he celebrated the liturgy and foot-washing ritual at a center for migrants and refugees.
This article was written by Cindy Wooden of Catholic News Service.
Featured image: Newly elected Pope Francis, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina, waves after praying at the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome March 14, 2013. Pope Francis, formerly Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, died April 21, 2025, at age 88. (CNS photo/Alessandro Bianchi, Reuters)
