Pope Francis dies: A look back at a long life of service

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis I, the first pontiff elected from South America and the first Jesuit elevated to the Catholic Church’s top position, died April 21, hours after celebrating Easter. He was 88.

The Vatican announced his death Monday morning.

Time magazine named Francis its Person of the Year in 2013, referring to him as “The People’s Pope.”

He was hospitalized in February 2025 after a CT scan found pneumonia in both of his lungs.

That news came a day after the Vatican said that Francis had a “polymicrobial respiratory tract infection,” The Associated Press reported. That infection caused a “complex clinical picture” that would keep the native of Argentina in the hospital.

Francis was also hospitalized in late February 2024 for the flu. For more than a year, he had been using a wheelchair and a walker because of strained ligaments in his knee.

When he was younger, Francis suffered from severe pneumonia and had part of one lung removed. More recently, he suffered two falls and used a wheelchair to help alleviate his restricted mobility.

Francis also has diverticulitis, a common condition that can cause inflammation or infection of the colon. In 2021, he had surgery to remove part of his colon.

Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Dec. 17, 1936, Francis was the son of Italian immigrants, according to his official Vatican biography.

He was elected the 266th pope in history on March 13, 2013, after the surprising resignation of Pope Benedict XVI two weeks earlier.

“Now, we take up this journey,” Francis told the crowd gathered at St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City after his election by the College of Cardinals. “A journey of fraternity, of love, of trust among us.”

The pontiff had surgery for intestinal blockage in June 2023. That came two years after Francis had 13 inches of his colon removed because of a narrowing of his large intestine.

He was hospitalized for five days at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital in late March 2023 with a lung infection.

Francis had part of one lung removed when he was younger.

In April 2023, the pope spent three days at Gemelli Hospital for what the Vatican said was bronchitis. He was discharged after receiving intravenous antibiotics.

In late November 2023, he suffered breathing problems, causing him to cancel a trip to Dubai for the U.N. climate conference on doctors’ orders, according to The Associated Press.

Francis was named Archbishop of Buenos Aires on June 3, 1997. He was elevated to cardinal on Feb. 21, 2001, by Pope John Paul II.

According to his Vatican biography, Francis graduated in 1963 with a degree in philosophy from the Colegio de San José in San Miguel, Argentina. For the next two years, he taught literature and psychology at Immaculate Conception College in Santa Fe, moving to Buenos Aires in 1966 and teaching the same subject in Buenos Aires. In 1970, Francis earned a degree in theology from the Colegio of San José.

Francis was ordained as a priest on Dec. 13, 1969. He was named the Archbishop of Buenos Aires on June 3, 1997.

Francis famously said, “Who am I to judge?” months into his pontificate when referring to the inclusion of gays in society, The Washington Post reported. It marked a shift in how pontiffs spoke about LGBTQ Catholics.

He also criticized national-level laws that criminalized same-sex relationships, according to the newspaper.

In 2015, the pope published a major papal document, called an encyclical, about the environment and climate change. He warned about the dangers of exploiting nature and spoke about protecting Earth from a moral and social perspective, according to the Post.

Lucetta Scaraffia, a historian and former editor of a Vatican magazine who has been a critic of Francis on several issues, told the newspaper that the encyclical was a “work of genius” and a highlight of his pontificate.

“He made it clear that the poor would pay the dearest price for robbing nature,” Scaraffia said.

Francis was also the first to make a papal visit to the Arabian Peninsula. According to the Catholic Herald, the pontiff visited the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan in late January and early February 2023 and then traveled to Hungary after his brief hospitalization for bronchitis in April 2023. He visited more than 60 countries during his pontificate and did not slow down last year, making five international trips, according to the National Catholic Register.

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