Rome – Pope Francis, who challenged the deeply rooted norms and His mission did To change the perception of the Catholic Church worldwide, he has died at the age of 88. The Vatican said Francis died Right after 7:30 am local time on Monday, one day after many surprised by Appearing outside the Vatican Easter Sunday to greet supporters.
Cardinal Kevin Farrell, Camerlengo of the Apostolic Chamber, formally announced the death of Francis on Monday, with a statement that said: “At 7:35 this morning, the bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the house of the Fild Life Liz a true disciple of the Lord Jesus Mer Lefove Lefoul Triune God.
Francis had experienced a series of health problems in recent years, including two abdominal surgery and several serious Respiratory infections. He spent Five weeks in it Hospital In February and March 2025 with bronchitis that became pneumonia In both lungs. Hey marked the 12th anniversary of his papacy From your hospital room.
The pontiff was pushed into a wheelchair to the room for an interview. In his Vatican residence With CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell in April 2024. But while I had difficulty walking, Hey spoke clearly turning the One -hour conversation on their prayers for an end of Wars in Gaza and Ukraine. However, in more recently, the Pontiff clearly fought for breath while pronouncing planned comments.
After being chosen by his fellow Catholic cardinals in 2013, Francis marked the guideline with his first official act as Pope, reversing a centenary tradition simply asking for help.
Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images 
Normally, after a new Pope is chosen, they leave and bless the masses gathered in the Plaza de San Pedro in the Vatican. But when Francis was chosen, the aspertic came out and first to bless and pray for him.
“I want to ask you for a favor,” he said. “Before the bishop blesses people, I ask you to pray to the Lord to bless me.”
It may seem a subtle change, but together with his relative greeting and farewell to the crowd in Italian that day, he marked the pattern for his whole papacy. Francis made it clear that he identified himself as a pilgrim brother, not as an imperial Pope. I did not want to continue leading a unidirectional monologue of the highest post of the Catholic Church, but a dialogue.
As Pope, the man previously known as Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio chose to name himself after Francis de Asís, the patron saint of Italy, known for his simplicity and humanity.
The first Pope of the New World, born and raised in Argentina, said “a poorest church” and one that “would include excluding.”
He gave an example when choosing in the 201 Sala in Santa Marta, a small Vatican hotel that is generally used to visit priests, instead of in the luxurious papal apartments used by their predecessors. Francis wore his own bag and crossed Rome to buy his own pair of vessels.
His desire to communicate with common people sent the “popemobiles” to storage bullets.
“I can’t greet people from inside a can of Sardina,” Francis explained, “even if it is made of glass.”
He Became One of the Most Popular Public Figures in the World, Regularly Speak Up for the Voicess and Leading by Example – WHETHER THAT WAS BY DINING WITH THE HOMELESS, WASHING INMATES ‘Feet, or PROVIDING A HOM Refugee and refugees and refugee and refugees and refugee and refugea and refugees and refugees and refugees and refugees and refugees and refugees and refugees and refugees and refugees and refugees and refugees
Francisco against consumerism and individualism, and insisted that “unfair economic structures” were a violation of human rights.
He also pressed for progress in the fight against climate change, even publishing an encyclical letter, a formal letter of himself to Catholic leaders around the world, on the subject. And reformed the curia, the central administration of the Church, allowing the lay men and women to direct Vatican offices, historical positions reserved for cardinals and bishops.
Francis continued to give its duration of public sentences the coronavirus blockages, but with the prohibited crowds, “the Pope of the people” let their messages be delivered in an empty square in San Pedro.
Not losing the time after receiving his Covid vaccine, Francis made a daring and first dives Papal visit to IraqDespite the immense security risks. In Mosul, where ISIS militants once looted Iglesias, Pope Francis prayed in them.
A few months later, his health finally reached him. He spent 10 days In a hospital in Rome In July 2021, he recovered from surgery scheduled to eliminate part of his colon. It was the first time he was hospitalized after being appointed Pope.
In 2022, a torn knee ligament forced Francis to finally Decelerate. I was using a wheelchair and canceling the Vatican celebrations and trips abroad, generating persistent rumors that Francis, such as Pope Benedict XVI, would. give up. Whenever Benedict diedFrancis chaired His funeral, the first time in modern history, a Pope has put his predecessor to rest.
Approximately in time, Francis Beg’s papacy will be defined by a hey theme did not choose: the wave of scandals of clerical sexual abuse that extended to the highest levels of the Catholic Church. He was accused, at the beginning, or the bee inensitive in his slow response to the crisis.
He then tried to take control of the narrative, in particular, the senior clergy of Sumonement from all over the world to the Vatican in early 2019. From that meeting came new laws of the Vatican on sexual abuse and a mandate that each diocese established a clear report process. Francis also abolished the high -level confidentiality of the “Pontifical Secret”, which had wrapped the crisis of sexual abuse in another layer of systemic secret.
His diplomatic ability was on display when he hears Played a key role By restoring relations between the United States and its enemy of decades, Cuba.
Francis’s simple style was a product of his humble start. It was born in 1936 from an Italian immigrant rail worker and a housewife in Buenos Aires, Argentina. When he was young, he lost part of a lung due to an infection. He worked on several servile jobs and studied chemistry.
After being ordered as a priest at the end of the age of 32, the fact of visiting the low neighborhoods of Buenos Aires and taking care of the poor characteristic of the city of his ministry.
Duration A press conference aboard a papal flight years later, seemed to open a space for homosexuals in the church, with a single highly symbolic phrase: “Who am I to judge?” Hey asked When a journalist fired a question about LGBTQ rights.
But although it may have received a generalized loan for changing the tone of the Church when it comes to acceptance, the teachings and policy of the Church did not change.
Despite causing fire to Catholic conservatives because they were too liberal, Francis reaffirmed the doctrines of the Church of Long Data Oppose same -sex marriageAnd in almost everything else, from birth control to Order.
Francis said he only brought a small bag to the papal conclave in 2013 that saw him chosen, because he hoped to return home to Argentina.
Instead, neither his life, nor the papacy, were the same again.
