Vatican City, Apr 21, 2025 / 05:48 am (CNA).
Pope Francis passed away at 7:35 a.m. local time on Easter Monday, April 21, at his residence in the Vatican’s Casa Santa Marta, as confirmed by the Holy See Press Office. The 88-year-old pontiff led the Catholic Church for a little more than 12 years.
Cardinal Kevin Farrell, camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church, officially announced the pope’s death in a video message. “At 7:35 this morning, the bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the house of the Father,” Farrell stated.
“His entire life was dedicated to the service of God and his Church. He taught us to live the values of the Gospel with fidelity, courage, and universal love, especially for the poorest and most marginalized.”
The Vatican has not yet announced details regarding the funeral arrangements for the first Latin American pope in history. A conclave to elect his successor will be convoked in the coming days.
Jorge Mario Bergoglio was born on Dec. 17, 1936, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and entered the Society of Jesus at age 21. Following his ordination in 1969, he served as a Jesuit provincial, seminary rector, and professor before St. John Paul II appointed him auxiliary bishop of Buenos Aires in 1992. He became archbishop of the Argentine capital in 1998 and was created cardinal in 2001.
The surprise election of Cardinal Bergoglio on March 13, 2013, at age 76 marked several historic firsts: He became the first Jesuit pope, the first from the Americas, and the first to choose the name Francis, inspired by St. Francis of Assisi’s devotion to poverty, peace, and creation.
His 12-year pontificate was characterized by a focus on mercy, care for creation, and attention to what he called the “peripheries” of both the Church and society. He made 47 apostolic journeys outside Italy, though he never visited his native Argentina.
During his tenure, Pope Francis canonized 942 saints — more than any other pope in history — including his predecessors John XXIII, Paul VI, and John Paul II. He published four encyclicals and seven apostolic exhortations while promulgating 75 motu proprio documents.
Throughout his papacy, Francis significantly reshaped the College of Cardinals through 10 consistories, creating 163 new cardinals. His appointments reflected his vision of a global Church, elevating prelates from the peripheries and creating cardinals in places that had never before had one, including Mongolia and South Sudan.
Health challenges marked the pope’s final years. He underwent surgery in July 2021 and in June 2023. In November 2023, he suffered from pulmonary inflammation, and in February 2025, he was hospitalized at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital for bronchitis and a respiratory infection.
His papacy faced unprecedented challenges, including the global COVID-19 pandemic, during which he offered historic moments of prayer for humanity, notably the extraordinary urbi et orbi blessing in an empty St. Peter’s Square in March 2020. He also repeatedly called for peace amid conflicts in Ukraine and the Holy Land.
Francis convoked four synods, including the Synod on Synodality, whose second session concluded in October 2024. He implemented significant reforms of the Roman Curia and took several steps to address the clergy abuse crisis, including the 2019 motu proprio Vos Estis Lux Mundi.
Following the pope’s funeral and the traditional nine days of mourning, cardinals from around the world will gather in Rome for the general congregations and subsequent conclave to elect his successor.
This is a developing story.
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We can only pray that our next Pope is a faithful follower of Jesus Christ.
Archbishop Chaput made this comment:
“As a brother in the faith, and a successor of Peter, he deserves our ongoing prayers for his eternal life in the presence of the God he loved.
Having said that, an interregnum between papacies is a time for candor. The lack of it, given today’s challenges, is too expensive. In many ways, whatever its strengths, the Francis pontificate was inadequate to the real issues facing the Church. He had no direct involvement in the Second Vatican Council and seemed to resent the legacy of his immediate predecessors who did; men who worked and suffered to incarnate the council’s teachings faithfully into Catholic life. His personality tended toward the temperamental and autocratic. He resisted even loyal criticism.”
A pontificate “marked by mercy?” What mercy was ever extended towards the victims of the many sins he trivialized.
Let us pray he has received the real mercy in his final judgment to which his worldly pandering caused him to misunderstand, a mercy we all need.
Cardinal Dolan, on Fox & Friends, responded to a request for what he’d say to the American people on the death of Pope Francis:
“….So we believe he’s still alive, ok? He’s alive in, through, and with Jesus Christ, and, and so it, it, it just sorta’ strengthens our faith in the resurrection. It strengthens our faith in the Passover, as our Jewish brothers and sisters will say, that he’s only passing over from this life to the fullness of life. Now we don’t take that for granted. He was one eloquent teacher of mercy—the mercy of God. So he’s the first one that says, ‘You make sure that the Lord’s mercy extends to me at the moment of my death.’ And we do that. We do that. But we also pray with gratitude, and we also pray with utter confidence–uh–that he’s–uh–that–uh–that the Lord gives his mercy and he’s enjoying eternal reward which he so richly deserves.”
So there is one judgment.
Fr. Gerald Murray also appeared on Fox News today. He calmly pointed to the two paths the Church may take in choosing a new pope.
This guy showed no mercy to faithful Catholics; threw Chinese Catholics under the bus driven by their persecutors; never cared to understand victims of clergy sex abuse … Perhaps it is better to hold one’s tongue on such a day as this, but to present, as the CNA staff, a fairy tale tribute requires response. May he rest in peace.
Absolutely right, jpf!
This papacy is responsible for the coining of the term, “to Rupnik.”
As in, “For the past twelve years, Bergoglio has thoroughly Rupniked the Catholic Church by promoting evildoers within the hierarchy and by covering up for the evil deeds they have done.”
My current bishop is in the tradition of St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI.
He reaches retirement age this year. This morning when I heard of Francis’
death, I could not help feel relief that he would not be appointing my next
bishop.
Lucky you!!!
Francy, I agree. And let’s have none of the “Santo Subito” mania with reference to this Pope.
The “Mercy and Reform” narrative for the Pontiff Francis is a worn out meme, the epilogue of a 12-yr-long PR campaign, signifying…nothing.
“Thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven.”
“Mercy and reform”? Ruthless suppression of enemies real and imagined, a gossip hound who took gossip as truth driving his acts of suppression, slapped at adoring women, yelled at them, surrounded himself with perverts whom he protected in exchange for as much protection as he could afford, opened wide doors shut by two prior Popes, sewing confusion and chaos, and published an encylical on prayer telling contemplative orders to get a REAL job, and launched an assault on those orders…a Machiavellian Peronist who spouted power to the people while while ruling as a dictator, a reign of fear in the Vatican, and terror of orthodox bishops.
dropped text…”protected them in exchange for loyalty with as much protection as he could afford”
The dialogue here on the “Pope of the people” shows a vitriol and disparagement of the deceased “Bergoglio,” the name frequently used by those who should never “throw the first stone”. The innuendo reveals much fervor, but few details.
Seems like the court of opinion will rage on with the use of terms that Pope Francis often used. Love, not hate, compassion, not repulsion, build bridges, not walls, plea to remember the poor, being a homosexual is not a sin. I have a Gay friend. Am I supposed to isolate him and reject him?
We must love our neighbor. Inclusion, not isolation, which in some cases causes violence. The Church opposes the Gay lifestyle. I believe that Francis thought the act was sinful. Will the upcoming conclave seek to “solve” the issue?
Harken to the signs of support when many thousands prayed in the courtyard of the Vatican, and condolences from millions around the world on April 21st. The real evidence of support will come from the Conclave and the entire communion of clerics.
Pray for Pope Francis.
The use of the name “Bergoglio” is not, in itself, an insult or attack. Anyone familiar with past popes and commentary knows this.
“I have a Gay friend. Am I supposed to isolate him and reject him?”
Seriously?
First name Carl. There must be more in your turse retort than name-calling. It’s not the last name that causes concern, it’s the context that surrounds it.
Thank you for your comment.
You know Mr Morgan, Pope Francis didn’t come up on his own with the concept of homosexual behavior being disordered. It’s clearly explained in our Catechism.
Those attractions are only sinful when acted upon. We each have some kind of disorder and inclination to sin because we all share the same broken human nature.
MorganD, we read: “Will the upcoming conclave seek to “solve” the issue?”
“Issue”? What issue?
Half century ago the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith already offered clarification: https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19751229_persona-humana_en.html
And, then, in 1986 Cardinal Ratzinger, Prefect for the Congregation, referred to this clarification in his “Letter to Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons. In which, he recalled, for example: “…the [1975] Congregation took note of the distinction commonly drawn between the homosexual condition or tendency and individual actions. These were described as deprived of the essential and indispensable finality, as being ‘intrinsically disordered’, and able in no case to be approved of 9cf. no. 8, Section 4).” https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19861001_homosexual-persons_en.html
Perhaps the real “issue” to be solved is today’s amnesiac mindset that disregards the longstanding distinction you now rightfully request, replacing it with, what, der Synodal Weg, Fr. Martin/Sister Jeannine Gramick photo-ops, parts of the metastasized Synod on Synodality, and then a follow-up Study Group #9 on so-called “hot button issues”—this Group charged with proposing “[t]heological criteria [!] and synodal methodologies [! say what?] for shared discernment of controversial [meaning perpetually controverted?] doctrinal [!], pastoral [!], and ethical issues [!].”
A quite broad scavenger hunt, originally scheduled to report in June 2025 and to be humbly tendered to the ruminations of Cardinal Grech’s congregational (?) “2028 Ecclesial Assembly.”
Name one moment in time anyone you declare to be an “enemy” of Francis who ever expressed Christian values in opposition to the concepts of compassion for all people, whatever their affliction, belief system, of inclinations for sin.
Why are you so weirdly capitalizing the G in “gay?”
Would you also write, “I have an Adulterous friend?”
“I have a Thief friend?”
“I have an Oppressive of the Poor friend?”
“I have a Murderous friend?”
So why this one?
He’s trying to justify the lifestyle to himself. He has often posted comments indirectly supporting homosexuality. Maybe it’s projection or wishful thinking.
Suppose, morganD, if I had a Razzle-Dazzle friend, should I pass laws legalizing razzle-dazzle to prove I love him outside there and “genuinely in my heart” too besides. That would be kind of an over-burden of something I would say was not Christian love or anything humane even when I could not quite identify the something right away.
I have a homosexual acquaintance. Why should that part of it be defining anything or overtake what really counts. The only “reason” would be so that it eludes its necessarily near and already long past due vanishing point; and that “reason” is not Christian either. The emphasis on such the past 12 years was diabolical.
I tip my hat to these here writers at CWR with their sharp pencils. Easter Greetings.
This article presents a really clear account of Pope Francis’ life and contributions! So informative and eye – opening.