After suffering from medical issues for months, Pope Francis has died at age 88. Though he is gone, the pope leaves a unique, history-making legacy.
“Dearest brothers and sisters, with deep sorrow I must announce the death of our Holy Father Francis,” said His Eminence Cardinal Kevin Joseph Farrell, Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church in a statement issued on Easter Monday.
The statement noted that the pope dedicated his “entire life” to service of the church.
Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio to Italian immigrants in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Dec. 17 1936, he was the first pope from the Americas. In 2013, the year he became pope, there were more than 1.1 billion Catholics in the world, with Brazil and Mexico ranking first and second as the countries with the most Catholics, per the Pew Research Center.
Pope Francis graduated as chemical technician before choosing the path of the priesthood, according to the Holy See. He entered the Diocesan Seminary of Villa Devoto and in 1958 he entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus.
“He completed his studies of the humanities in Chile and returned to Argentina in 1963 to graduate with a degree in philosophy from the Colegio de San José in San Miguel,” said the Holy See. “From 1964 to 1965 he taught literature and psychology at Immaculate Conception College in Santa Fé and in 1966 he taught the same subject at the Colegio del Salvatore in Buenos Aires. From 1967-70 he studied theology and obtained a degree from the Colegio of San José.”
He was ordained a priest by Archbishop Ramón José Castellano in 1969 and continued his training between 1970 and 1971 at the University of Alcalá de Henares, Spain. In 1973 he made his final profession with the Jesuits and was appointed Provincial of the Jesuits in Argentina – he would go on to hold that office for six years. In Argentina, he was novice master at Villa Barilari, San Miguel; professor at the Faculty of Theology of San Miguel; consultor to the Province of the Society of Jesus and also Rector of the Colegio Máximo of the Faculty of Philosophy and Theology.
Throughout the 1980s he worked in universities and completed his doctoral thesis in Germany. Pope John Paul II appointed him titular Bishop of Auca and Auxiliary of Buenos Aires in 1992, and in 2001 that pope made him a cardinal, assigning him the title of San Roberto Bellarmino. He also wrote multiple books.
“He asked the faithful not to come to Rome to celebrate his creation as Cardinal but rather to donate to the poor what they would have spent on the journey,” said the Holy See.
As he continued to study the Catholic faith, the man who would become Pope Francis became more popular in Latin America. Even so, the Holy See noted that he never veered from his relaxed approach to preaching or from his strict lifestyle.
In an interview with Audacy, Dr. Christopher Thompson, academic dean at the St. Paul Seminary, said that Pope Francis was “a little bit more informal,” than his more “regal predecessor, Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI. Thompson explained that this pope helped ease some of the intimidating aura of the Vatican and that he was a “rather avuncular figure, who is all smiling and willing to greet you and happy and healthy.”
In 2002, he declined to be appointed as President of the Argentine Bishops’ Conference However, he was elected three years later and reconfirmed in 2008 for a further three-year mandate. In 2005, he was also part of the conclave that elected Pope Benedict XIV.
“Despite his reserved character – his official biography consists of only a few lines, at least until his appointment as Archbishop of Buenos Aires – he became a reference point because of the strong stances he took during the dramatic financial crisis that overwhelmed the country in 2001,” said the Holy See.
As the leader of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis made waves for a new approach to the position. In an interview with Audacy last year before her exclusive interview with the pontiff, Norah O’Donnell of 60 Minutes said that he sought to be more inclusive than his predecessors during his papacy.
“Certainly this is groundbreaking what he is doing and terms of saying: ‘Look, everyone is welcome inside the church,’” she said. “Even when he began his papacy, he in a press conference, he was asked about gay priests and the LGBTQ community. And he said, quote, ‘Who am I to judge?’”
O’Donnell noted that Pope Francis also met with transgender people regularly, even though his comments that they could be grandparents upset conservative bishops in the U.S. During their interview, Pope Francis “took every question we asked him,” even on controversial topics such as migration and reproductive rights, she said.
“He is so empathetic. He is so caring. He wants to change the way people think about one another in a way that I think is in keeping with the idea of social justice that the Catholic Church is about,” said the veteran journalist.
Pope Francis was admitted to the Agostino Gemelli Hospital in Rome on Feb. 14, following a bought of bronchitis, according to Vatican News. Shortly after, the Vatican shared that the pope’s health had taken a turn for the worse.
With this news, people around the world began praying for the Holy Father’s health from Rome to the U.S. In Philadelphia, Pa., Audacy reported that the city’s Catholic community was rallying for him at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul. Audacy station KYW’s medical editor, Dr. Brian McDonough, weighed in on the uphill medical battle facing the pope.
Catholics in Chicago, Ill., were also praying for the pope in February. There, Father Michael Pfleger of St. Sabina’s – a well-known social activist – told Audacy that Pope Francis’ legacy will be marked by human decency.
“The good news is that I think he has appointed lots of cardinals, and so there’s a lot of people, I think, that he’s tried to put in places of position that have the kind of heart he has and the kind of passion for justice he has,” Pfleger said.
Following the death or resignation of a pope, the governance of the Catholic Church passes to the College of Cardinals, according to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Cardinals hold a series of meetings at the Vatican, general congregations, to discuss the needs of the church on a global scale to prepare for the conclave, where 120 under the age of 80 elect the new pope. Until a new pontiff is chosen, some decisions are put on hold.
“In a world that’s full of turmoil, I think some people take refuge in clarity… and for Francis, the world is equally messy,” said Dr. Thompson before the pope’s death. “But for him, that was a call to move out. That was a call to go to the margins. That was a call to risk being in the company of others who – who might be on the margins of the church. And even if you’re not yourself, always clear on what you ought to say, confidence in the Holy Spirit would allow you to meet that occasion as Christ asked us to do.”