The world has lost a revolutionary spiritual leader as Pope Francis, the first Latin American pontiff in history, died Monday at age 88, concluding a remarkable papacy that both inspired millions and challenged centuries-old institutions.
“At 7:35 this morning (Italian time), the Bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the Father’s house. His entire life was dedicated to the service of the Lord and His Church,” announced Cardinal Kevin Ferrell from the chapel of Domus Santa Marta, where the Pope had chosen to live throughout his papacy – one of many symbolic breaks with tradition that defined his leadership.
Church bells tolled throughout Rome as the news spread, marking the end of a transformative chapter in Catholic history that began on that rainy night of March 13, 2013, when Jorge Mario Bergoglio first appeared on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica.
Francis, who suffered from chronic lung disease since his youth, had been hospitalized on February 14, 2025, for a respiratory crisis that developed into bilateral pneumonia. After 38 days in the hospital—the longest hospitalization of his 12-year papacy—he surprised the world by appearing on Easter Sunday to bless thousands of faithful and take an unexpected ride in the popemobile, just one day before his death.
– A Profound Legacy of Compassion –
From his first greeting as pope—a casual “Good evening” rather than a formal blessing—Francis established a profoundly different tone for his papacy, emphasizing simplicity over pomp in a Catholic Church struggling to recover its credibility after numerous scandals.
“I see clearly that what the Church needs today is the ability to heal wounds and warm the hearts of the faithful,” he told the Jesuit magazine La Civilta Cattolica in 2013. “I see the Church as a field hospital after battle.”
As if becoming the first Jesuit and Latin American pope in history wasn’t enough, he was also the first to name himself after St. Francis of Assisi, the 13th-century friar known for his personal simplicity, message of peace, and concern for the marginalized and nature.
Francis reached out to the margins of society to act with mercy, caressing the deformed head of a man in St. Peter’s Square, kissing a Holocaust survivor’s tattoo, or inviting Argentina’s “cartoneros”—garbage pickers—to join him on a stage in Rio de Janeiro.
His first trip as pope was to the small island of Lampedusa, then ground zero of Europe’s migration crisis. Consistently, he chose to visit poor countries where Christians were often persecuted minorities rather than centers of global Catholicism.
– A Profound Shift in Approach –
“Who am I to judge?” he responded when asked about a supposedly gay priest.
The comment sent a message of welcome to the LGBTQ+ community and those who felt rejected by a Church that had emphasized certain rules of sexual behavior above unconditional love.
“Being homosexual is not a crime,” he told The Associated Press in 2023, calling for an end to civil laws that criminalize homosexuality.
By emphasizing mercy over morality, Francis changed the Church’s position on the death penalty, declaring it inadmissible under any circumstances. He also modified the ecclesiastical position by declaring that the mere possession of nuclear weapons—not just their use—was “immoral.”
Francis reaffirmed that only celibate men could be priests and upheld the Church’s opposition to abortion, a procedure he equated to “hiring a hitman to solve a problem.”
– A Profound Commitment to the Marginalized –
Despite not allowing women to be ordained, his reform was part of a revolutionary shift emphasizing that the Catholic Church should be a refuge for “all, all, all” and not just a space for the privileged.
Migrants, the poor, prisoners, and the marginalized were invited to his table, even more so than presidents or powerful businesspeople.
“For Pope Francis, it was always about extending the Church’s arms to welcome all people, excluding no one,” said Cardinal Kevin Farrell, whom Francis appointed camerlengo, an official who takes control after a pontiff’s death or retirement.
Francis demanded that his bishops show mercy and charity to their parishioners, urged the world to protect God’s creation from climate disaster, and challenged countries to welcome those fleeing war, poverty, and oppression.
After visiting Mexico in 2016, Francis said of then-U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump that anyone who builds a wall to keep out migrants “is not Christian.”
While progressives were delighted with Francis’s focus on Jesus’s message of mercy and inclusion, he also worried conservatives, who feared he was diluting Catholic teaching and threatening the Christian identity of the West. Some even called him a heretic.
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