Pope Francis has di3d aged 88, the Vatican announced today.
The Pontiff spent his final weeks in hospital with an infection that developed into pneumonia in both lungs.
The Conclave – where cardinals gather in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican to choose a successor – will not happen for at least 15 days.
Francis’s body will lie in state in St Peter’s Basilica during an official mourning period, and then – in contrast to most of his predecessors – he will be buried in the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome’s Esquilino neighbourhood.
Francis just yesterday greeted Catholic faithful who had gathered to see him at St Peter’s Square on Easter Sunday. He delivered his ‘Urbi et Orbi’ benediction from a balcony overlooking the square following mass to mark the high holiday.
On his way to the basilica, Francis met briefly with US Vice President JD Vance, who was spending Easter in Rome with his family. The Vatican said the encounter was ‘brief’ and lasted a few minutes.
Francis became the first pope from outside Europe in 1,300 years when he was chosen to replace the retiring Pope Benedict XVI.
Despite several previous health issues and reduced mobility caused in part by his advancing years and expanding waistline, Francis had kept up a busy schedule until his final weeks.
In September 2024, he carried out a 12-day tour across south-east Asia and Oceania that included visits to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Singapore.
Francis, who was born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires, will be remembered for his comparatively liberal attitudes on some subjects that made him both popular and controversial.
He expressed tolerance towards divorcees, allowed priests to bless same-s3x couples under certain circumstances, and put concern for the environment at the heart of his papacy.
And he said in 2023 that transgender people could be baptised as long as it did not cause a scandal or ‘confusion’.
But he did stand firm on the subject of abortion. In a text signed by Francis that was released by the Vatican last year, terminations were described as ‘an extremely dangerous crisis of the moral sense’.
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Pope Francis on the main balcony of St. Peter’s basilica during the Urbi et Orbi message and blessing to the city and the world as part of Easter celebrations yesterday
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JD Vance (pictured left) tried to mend his rocky relationship with Pope Francis (pictured right) at the Vatican on Easter Sunday after the leader of the Catholic church slammed the Trump administration’s treatment of illegal migrants
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Masses of faithful gathered Sunday under hazy skies in the sprawling plaza
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Pope Francis has di3d aged 88, the Vatican announced today. On February 14, the day he went into hospital, Pope Francis held a private audience (above) with Slovak prime minister Robert Fico. It was the last time the Pope was officially photographed
Francis was first hospitalised on February 14. His treatment meant he had to cancel appearances, including his regular weekly prayer to pilgrims in St Peter’s Square.
His final illness came after he was hospitalised for three days in March 2023 with bronchitis.
In June that year he had a three-hour operation to repair an abdominal hernia.
He also had to cancel his trip to the COP28 climate summit in Dubai in November 2023 because of the effects of inluenza and lung inflammation.
And he had two recent falls.
After the first, in December 2024, he appeared with a large bruise on his chin during a ceremony in St Peter’s Basilica to install 21 new Catholic cardinals.
In January this year, he fell and hurt his right arm, which had to be put into a sling.
Francis’s health was considered more fragile because of the fact that he had to have part of one of his lungs removed when he was 21 after developing pleurisy.
Bergoglio was born on December 17, 1936. He was one of five children of an Italian immigrant railway worker and his wife.
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Pope Francis stands on the main balcony of St. Peter’s basilica during the Urbi et Orbi message and blessing to the city and the world as part of Easter celebrations, at St Peter’s square in the Vatican on April 20, 2025
Francis emerged from his convalescence on Easter Sunday to bless thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square and treat them to a surprise popemobile romp through the piazza, drawing wild cheers and applause as he continues his recovery from a near-fatal bout of double pneumonia.
‘Viva il Papa!’ – which means Long live the pope) – and ‘Bravo!’ the crowd shouted as Francis looped through the square in his open-topped popemobile and then up and down the main avenue leading to it. He stopped occasionally to bless babies brought up to him.
‘Brothers and sisters, Happy Easter!’ Francis said. He didn’t celebrate the Easter Mass in the piazza, delegating it to Cardinal Angelo Comastri, the retired archpriest of St. Peter´s Basilica.
But after the Mass ended, Francis appeared on the loggia balcony over the basilica entrance for more than 20 minutes and imparted the apostolic blessing in Latin. In all, Francis was outside for around 50 minutes.
On his way to the basilica, Francis met briefly in his hotel with Vance, who tried to mend his rocky relationship the Holy Father after Francis slammed the Trump administration’s treatment of illegal migrants.
Vance, an adult Catholic convert, appeared to have been snubbed by the Pontiff and forced to meet with the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and the foreign minister, Archbishop Peter Gallagher.
The Vatican said the meeting between the vice president and the Holy Father was ‘brief’ and lasted a few minutes.
Vance and the Pope have tangled sharply over migration and the Trump administration´s plans to deport migrants en masse. Francis has made caring for migrants a hallmark of his papacy.
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Pope Francis tours St. Peter’s Square in his popemobile after bestowing the Urbi et Orbi (Latin for to the city and to the world) blessing at the end of the Easter mass presided over by Cardinal Angelo Comastri in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican Sunday, April 20, 2025.(AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
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Pope Francis tours St. Peter’s Square on the Pope mobile, as faithful react
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Pope Francis meets with his predecessor, the former Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican, November 2020. The pair’s relationship was depicted in 2019 film Two Popes
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Jorge Mario Bergoglio pictured front row left dressed as a waiter in a school theatre production
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Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the future Pope Francis, pictured back row, second from left with his mother Regina Maria Sivori, father Mario José, brothers Alberto Horacio and Oscar and sisters Marta Regina and María Elena
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Jorge Mario Bergoglio as a teenager in Buenos Aires, and right as a younger child with his brother Oscar (on the right)
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Pope Francis as a young priest in Argentina. He rose to become archbishop of Buenos Aires
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Pope Francis in his wheelchair at the Vatican on the day of the Jubilee of the Armed Forces, February 9, 2025
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Pope Francis has di3d aged 88, the Vatican announced today. Above: The Pope using a wheelchair at the Vatican, February 3, 2025
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Pope Francis holds a baby as he greets the faithful during his weekly general audience at the Paul VI Hall, in Vatican City, January 29, 2025
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Pope Francis blesses a child during the weekly general audience, at the Paul VI hall in the Vatican, January 29, 2025
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Pope Francis blesses a baby at the Vatican during general audience, January 29, 2025
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The new Pope Francis I addresses the crowd from the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica as the cardinals who elected him stand around him, March 13, 2013
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The new Pope Francis I waves from the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica after being elected by fellow cardinals following a two-day conclave, March 13, 2013
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Newly elected Pope Francis I appears on the central balcony of St Peter’s Basilica on March 13, 2013 in Vatican City
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The new Pope Francis waves as he leaves the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, March 14, 2013
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Pope Francis delivers the Angelus prayer, St Peter’s Square, Vatican City, March 17, 2013
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Pope Francis arrives to celebrate the Easter Holy Mass at St Peter’s Square, Vatican City, March 31, 2013
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Pope Francis’s Inauguration Mass in St Peter’s Square in Vatican City, March 19, 2013
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Pope Francis waves to the crowd from the Popemobile during his Inauguration Mass in St Peter’s Square, March 2013
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Pope Francis takes part in his first mass, in the Sistine Chapel, on March 14, 2013
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Pope Francis presides over a Papal Mass with the celebration of the Lord’s Passion inside St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, Vatican on March 29, 2013
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Pope Francis lies down in prayer during the Passion of Christ Mass inside St. Peter’s Basilica, at the Vatican, March 29, 2013
He had an early love interest in the form of a girl named Amalia Damonte. She later recounted that he proposed to her despite their parents disapproving.
Pope Francis’s history of health problems
LUNG AND RESPIRATORY TRACT
When he was 21, the then Jorge Bergoglio developed pleurisy and had part of one of his lungs removed in Argentina.
He suffered repeated influenza and related problems since the start of 2023.
He cancelled his appointments on September 23, 2024, because of what the Vatican described as light flu symptoms.
In February last year, he had a check-up in hospital after suffering from flu and returned to the Vatican promptly the same day.
In late November 2023, he was forced to cancel a planned trip to the COP28 climate meeting in Dubai because of the effects of influenza and lung inflammation.
In March 2023, the Pope was taken to hospital after complaining that he had difficulty breathing. He recovered swiftly after receiving antibiotics for bronchitis.
FALLS
The Pope suffered two falls recently in his residence, bruising his chin in December 2024 and injuring his arm in January 2025.
COLON AND ABDOMEN
The Pope spent nine days in hospital in June 2023 when he had surgery to repair an abdominal hernia.
His medical team had decided that surgery was required because the condition was causing painful intestinal occlusions.
In July 2021, the Pope had 13 inches (33 cm) of his colon removed in a six-hour operation that was aimed at addressing a painful bowel condition called diverticulitis.
He said in 2023 that the condition had returned. In an interview with Reuters in 2022, he dismissed as ‘court gossip’ rumours that cancer had been found during the 2021 surgery.
The surgeon who operated on him has since confirmed that there was no cancer.
BACK AND KNEE
The Pope also suffered from sciatica, a chronic nerve condition that causes back, hip and leg pain.
A flare-up of the ailment caused the pope to miss New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day services in December 2020, the first time health problems had caused him to miss major religious events.
He also developed a separate, painful knee problem, but told Reuters in July 2022 he opted against surgery because he did not want a repeat of long-term negative side effects from anaesthesia that he suffered from the 2021 colon operation.
Instead, he has looked to overcome the problem with laser and magnet therapy.
In 2022, he was forced to cancel trips to Lebanon, Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan because of his walking problems.
He rescheduled the Africa trip and went to both countries in 2023.
In his final years, the Pope used a wheelchair or a cane and his waistline noticeably increased due to a more sedentary lifestyle in the Vatican.
MENTAL HEALTH
Pope Francis said in 2021 he saw a psychiatrist in his native Argentina when he was a young priest who helped him deal with anxiety during the time of the military dictatorship.
He said he had learnt to deal with the problem through various mechanisms, including listening to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach.
Bergoglio allegedly told her: ‘If I can’t marry you, I will become a priest’. Damonte added: ‘Fortunately for him, I said no.’
The future Pope worked as a nightclub bouncer and trained as a chemical technician before joining the elite Society of Jesus after being inspired by a priest.
At the age of 32, he became a Jesuit priest in his own right.
Within four years, he was leading the local Jesuit community and in 1998 he was appointed archbishop of Buenos Aires.
He was created a cardinal three years later by Pope John Paul II.
By then, he had garnered the nickname of the ‘Slum Bishop’ after focusing on poverty relief in the most deprived parts of Buenos Aires.
In 2012 – the year before he became the Pope – Bergoglio stood out strongly against the government of Cristina Fernandez in Argentina.
He said that his country was suffering from demagoguery, corruption and efforts to establish authoritarian rule.
Bergoglio was chosen as Pope Benedict’s successor on March 14, 2013.
The German pontiff’s shock resignation the previous month triggered the first conclave since 2005, following the d3ath of John Paul II.
Cardinals took five rounds of voting to settle on the first Latin American pope in history.
They appeared to have struggled to choose between maintaining a non-Italian papacy or to return to its traditional roots.
Francis then appeared in his papal robes on the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica to address thousands of jubilant Catholics who were packed into the square below.
The photograph of the new Pope surrounded by some of the cardinals who elected him inspired author Robert Harris to write his 2016 bestselling papal thriller Conclave.
The film adaptation starring Ralph Fiennes was released late in 2024.
It won four Baftas this year, including best film and best British film – the first time since 2019 that a movie has won both awards in the same year.
Speaking in Italian in his first address to the crowd in St Peter’s Square, Francis said: ‘Let’s pray for one another, for the whole world, so that there is great fraternity.’
He led the crowd in prayer for Benedict – now known as Pope Emeritus – and led the faithful in reciting the Lord’s Prayer.
Soon after he became the Pope, allegations that Francis had failed to openly confront Argentina’s murderous military dictatorship resurfaced.
Like most Argentines, Bergoglio did not publicly confront the junta, which ruled from 1976 until 1983.
Critics claimed he did little to help those who disappeared during the dictatorship. Thousands of people were never seen again.
Human rights lawyer Myriam Bregman accused Francis of allowing his own Jesuit priests to be rounded up and tortured by the junta d3ath squads.
When what was known as the ‘Dirty War’ began in 1972, church leaders were alleged to have known what was happening, but chose to back the regime of Juan Peron and then the military junta.
Thousands of babies of mothers murdered as enemies of the regime and then adopted by families approved by the military dictatorship.
In October 2012, the bishops of Argentina – led by Francis – published an apology which acknowledged that the church had not protected its faithful.
They also appealed for information about where bodies had been buried and for stolen babies to come forward.
But the apology did not stop Bergoglio’s critics from slamming his refusal to give evidence in court on the events of the 1970s until 2010, when his answers were considered by some to be evasive.
He was also accused of failing to prevent the torture of two of his own Jesuit priests.
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Pope Francis waves from the Popemobile as he arrives to celebrate Mass on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, during his first foreign trip since becoming pontiff, July 28, 2013
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Hundreds of thousands of people crowd Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro on July 28, 2013 as Pope Francis (on screens) celebrates the final mass of his visit to Brazil
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Pope Francis kisses a child dressed as him in Saint Peter’s Square in the Vatican, February 25, 2014
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Pope Francis and US President Barack Obama laugh as they exchange gifts during a private audience at the Vatican, March 2014
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Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip meet the Pope at the Vatican, April 2014
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Pope Francis pushes an envelope through the cracks of the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City, May 26, 2014
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Pope Francis prays in front of the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest site, in Jerusalem’s Old City, May 26, 2014
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Pope Francis greets fans in Daejeon, South Korea, during his visit to the country, August 2014
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Pope Francis kisses a sick child before a canonisation mass for Joseph Vaz in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo on January 14, 2015
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Pope Francis waves to the crowd in Santiago de Cuba, September 22, 2015
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Pope Francis addresses a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress, as the then Vice President Joe Biden sits behind him, September 24, 2015
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Pope Francis waves to faithful as he arrives for a Papal mass in Kenya’s capital Nairobi, November 26, 2015
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Pope Francis walks through Auschwitz’s notorious gate with the sign ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ (‘work sets you free’) during his visit to the former Nazi d3ath camp, Poland, July 29, 2016
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Pope Francis waves to the faithful at Phoenix Park in Dublin during his visit to Ireland, August 26, 2018
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Pope Francis visiting Mosul, Iraq, March 7, 2021
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Pope Francis bidding farewell to Iraq’s President Barham Saleh and his wife Sarbagh before the pontiff boards his plane at the conclusion of his visit to Iraq, March 8, 2021
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Pope Francis greets a person dressed as Spiderman at the Vatican, June 23, 2021
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Pope Francis meets with First Nations, Metis and Inuit indigenous communities in Maskwacis, Alberta, Canada July 25, 2022
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Pope Francis waves to a huge crowd in the velodrome stadium in Marseille, France, on September 23, 2023
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Pope Francis poses for the media with French President Emmanuel Macron during their meeting at the Palais du Pharo in the southern port city of Marseille, France, September 23, 2023
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Pope Francis gestures as he leaves after leading a holy mass at Tasitolu park in Dili, Timor-Leste, September 2024
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Pope Francis greets Edwin Tong, minister for culture of Singapore, during his visit to the country, September 13, 2024
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Pope Francis waves as he arrives for a meeting with young people at the Catholic Junior College in Singapore, September 13, 2024
However, supporters of the Pope insisted that he did take risks behind the scenes, including visiting the home of dictator Jorge Videla to appeal for mercy.
Francis weathered the criticism and proved to be a busy Pope.
His first foreign visit was, fittingly, to South America. His seven-day visit to Brazil was followed by a trip to the Middle East the following year.
In Israel, he visited the al-Aqsa Mosque and then prayed at the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City.
Other visits included trips to Cuba and the United States in 2015, Dublin in 2018 and to Iraq in 2021.
On several occasions, Francis directly addressed the painful subject of s3xual abuse in the Catholic Church.
In 2018, he told abusers to turn themselves in and to ‘prepare for divine justice’.
The following year, he admitted for the first time that priests and bishops s3xually abused nuns in the past.
Cases of abused nuns had been reported in India, Africa, Europe and South America.
He told reporters: ‘Should we do something more? Yes. Is there the will? Yes. But it’s a path that we have already begun.’
In 2020, Francis vowed to ‘uproot the evil of child abuse’ after a damning report into the Vatican’s handling of allegations against US cardinal Theodore McCarrick were published.
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Pope Francis greets crowds during his visit to Corsica, December 2024
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Pope Francis speaks with French President Emmanuel Macron as they meet at the Ajaccio airport, on the French island of Corsica, on December 15, 2024
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Pope Francis leads the holy mass at Place d’Austerlitz (U Casone) in Ajaccio, Corsica, December 15, 2024
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Pope Francis welcomes Vietnamese visitors from the United States, December 19, 2024
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Pope Francis leads the traditional Urbi et Orbi Christmas Day blessing from the central balcony of Saint Peter’s Square at the Vatican City on Christmas Day, December 25, 2024
And in September 2024, during a visit to Belgium at the end of a hugely busy month, Francis told a crowd of 30,000 people in Brussels: ‘Evil must not be hidden. Evil must be brought out into the open.’
His speech came after he held a meeting with 17 abuse survivors the day before.
Francis’s 12-day tour across south-east Asia and Oceania earlier in September proved to be his last major overseas visit.
In Dili, the capital of tiny Southeast Asian country Timor-Leste, some 600,000 people gathered in a field to see Francis oversee one of the biggest masses of his papacy.
The last leg of his tour was in Singapore. There, he criticised both Donald Trump and the then presidential hopeful’s political rival Kamala Harris – as both campaigned ahead of the American election.
He described them as ‘one who discards migrants and one who kills children’ in a rare voicing of his political views.
The Pope previously warned US voters they would need to cast their ballots ‘according to their conscience’ and decide who is ‘the lesser evil’.
In early February this year, just days into Mr Trump’s second presidency after his election victory last November, Francis criticised the new administration’s mass deportation of migrants.
He warned in a letter to US bishops that the program to forcefully deport people purely because of their illegal status deprives them of their dignity and ‘will end badly.’
Francis’s increasing reliance on a wheelchair and his gaining of weight demonstrated that his health was in a particularly fragile state in his final years.
His final admission to hospital proved to be the one challenge that he could not overcome
