Pope Francis I
White smoke emerged from a chimney atop the Sistine Chapel and bells pealed in Vatican City they evening of 13 March 2013, signaling that a new pope has been chosen to lead the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics. The 115 voting members of the College of Cardinals elected a successor to 85-year-old Pope Benedict, who resigned in January 2013 saying he did not have the strength to carry out his papal duties.
Saint Francis was one of the most lovable men of all history. A young man who, during convalescence from a severe illness, learns in Dean Stanley's words that "the world looks very different when viewed from the horizontal," gets up from it, resolved that the fascination of trifles shall not obscure the good things of life. He proceeded to forget all about himself and his personal interests and found that all the world began to think of him. He got so close to the heart of nature that it is not surprising that we have legends that the birds and the fishes, and even the wolf of Gubbio harkened to him. He gathered around him a group of men forever famous for their absolute simplicity of life and for their refusal to let selfish motives rule them in any way. Such a life might seem too ideal to have any practical influence over mankind, and, above all, too mystical to make any appeal except to a medieval world, yet literally dozens of lives of Saint Francis have been written in our very busy practical age. Probably never since his own time has there been so many people, and above all so many whose opinion is of value, ready to proclaim Saint Francis one of the most wonderful characters of humanity. St Francis of Assisi was born in Assisi, Umbria Italy in 1181 or 1182, and died died on October 4, 1226 in the Porziuncola, a small church he had helped restore at the beginning of his vocation.
Saint Francis Xavier [1506-1552] was born in Spain, of one of the noblest families of the kingdom of Navarre. After the usual collegiate studies in his own country, he went to Paris for a course of philosophy in the university. In spite of his extreme youth, his extraordinary ability secured for him a professorship in the affiliated College of Beauvais. It was in Paris that he met the man who shaped his destinies, Ignatius of Loyola. Abandoning his professorship, he took up the study of theology, practiced the rudest austerities, bound himself to a life of evangelical poverty, chastity and obedience, and with Ignatius and five other companions established what is known as the Society of Jesus.
Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio said during an audience with journalists on 15 March 2013 that Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes had told him not to forget the poor when the conclave voted in his favor. "He [Cardinal Hummes] hugged me. He kissed me. He said don't forget about the poor. And that's how in my heart came the name Francis of Assisi,” the pope said. He added that St. Francis was “the poor man who wanted a poor church."
Jorge Mario Bergoglio was born December 17, 1936 in Buenos Aires, and ordained December 13, 1969 during his theological studies at the Theological Faculty of San Miguel. Bergoglio served as Jesuit Provincial (elected leader of the order) for Argentina (1973-79) and rector of the Philosophical and Theological Faculty of San Miguel (1980-86). After completing his doctoral dissertation in Germany, Bergoglio served as a confessor and spiritual director in Cordoba. In 1992, the Pope appointed him Assistant Bishop of Buenos Aires; then in 1997, he was appointed Coadjutor Archbishop (deputy archbishop with right of succession) of Buenos Aires; ultimately becoming Archbishop on February 28, 1998.
Bergoglio was the vice-President of the Argentine Bishops Conference and served on the Vatican's committee for the worldwide synod of bishops (a grouping of all bishops conferences). He speaks Spanish, Italian and German. Bergoglio exemplifies the virtues of the wise pastor that many electors value. Observers have praised his humility: he has been reluctant to accept honors or hold high office and commutes to work on a bus. What could count against him was his membership in the Jesuit order. Some senior prelates, especially conservatives, are suspicious of a liberal streak in the order, perhaps most pronounced in the U.S., but also present elsewhere. Bergoglio is said to prefer life in the local Church as opposed to a bureaucratic existence in Rome's ecclesiastical structures, but at the same time he has been willing to serve on the Vatican's various supervisory committees. This could indicate an ability to bridge the curia/local church divide that splits the College of Cardinal Electors, making him a good compromise candidate.
While European and American church membership has sharply declined in recent years, the developing world (and Latin America, in particular) has experienced the opposite trend. Today, home to more than half of the world's Catholics, Latin America has increasingly emerged as the new face of Catholicism in the 21st century. Reflecting the rapid increase in church membership, the region is now represented by second largest regional voting block in the College of Cardinals, next to Europe.
By mid-2003 Pope John Paul II's increasing frailty prompted discussion over potential successors to the papacy. Despite the Euro-centric tradition of the papacy, some Vatican experts believe that the next pontiff may, in fact, be a Latin American. Cardinal Oscar Andres Maradiaga Rodriguez of Honduras was seen as both a popular and geographically strategic candidate. In addition to Cardinal Rodriguez, other strong candidates from the region identified by the media included: Dario Catrillon Hoyos (74) of Colombia; Jorge Mario Bergoglio (66) of Argentina; Claudio Hummes (68) of Brazil; Norberto Rivera Carrera (61) of Mexico; and Alfonso Lopez Trujillo (67) of Colombia.
In October 2006 Misiones Province [Argentina] governor and Kirchner ally Carlos Rovira's attempt to amend the provincial constitution to allow indefinite re-election was soundly rejected in an October 29 election for delegates to a constituent assembly. President Nestor Kirchner had publicly supported the effort and Rovira's defeat in the polls is being portrayed by the media and the opposition as a serious political setback for Kirchner. The opposition to Rovira in Misiones was led by the former Catholic bishop of the province Joaquin Pina, leading some journalists and political analysts to speculate that the Church may be the only institution strong enough to pose a real challenge to Kirchner. Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, head of the Catholic Archdioceses of Buenos Aires, lent his personal support to Pina's efforts, but has also discouraged any official Church involvement in politics.
Relations with the Church remained tense since former Bishop Joaquin Pina's successful campaign to defeat Kirchnerista Governor of Misiones province Carlos Rovira's push to allow indefinite reelection. Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio said that the Church would not get involved in politics, but supported retired Bishop Pina's efforts. Bergoglio later voiced his concern over Kirchner's concentration of power and the weakening of democratic institutions in Argentina. In Santa Cruz, a local Catholic Bishop has joined the teachers' cause and criticized the government for treating those who think differently from the government as "enemies," helping to aggravate the already tense relations between the administration and the Catholic church.
In return, the government appears irritated at the Cardinal's apparent preference for the opposition in this electoral year. Buenos Aires Mayor Jorge Telerman and his coalition partner and presidential candidate Elisa Carrio reportedly met with Bergoglio in April 2007, and the inclusion of Muslim leader Omar Abud on Telerman's list of legislature candidates was reportedly Bergoglio's idea.
Christian Von Wernich, a Roman Catholic priest and ex-chaplain of the Buenos Aires Police during Argentina's 1976-1983 Dirty War, was convicted 09 October 2007 of being an accomplice in several cases of murder, torture and illegal imprisonment. Von Wernich is the third ex-military official from the Dirty War period and first ecclesiastical figure to be tried and convicted of such crimes since the 2005 Argentina Supreme Court decision voiding immunity for ex-military personnel. The local leadership of the Catholic Church issued a press statement calling on Von Wernich to repent and seek public forgiveness, and noted the church's past requests for forgiveness and societal reconciliation.
The Roman Catholic clergy gave support to both sides in the Dirty War. Many on the political left allege the Church was complicit with atrocities committed by the state and believe the Church has failed to account or atone for its actions. As of 2007, the Church had not yet disciplined nor defrocked Von Wernich but sought to distance itself from the unauthorized, maverick operations of rogue priests. Nonetheless, at a time when some observers considered Roman Catholic primate Cardinal Bergoglio to be a leader of the opposition to the Kirchner administration because of his comments about social issues, the Von Wernich case could also have the effect, some believed, of undermining the Church's (and, by extension, Cardinal Bergoglio's) moral authority or capacity to comment on political, social or economic questions.
Francis engaged in a series of sharp skirmishes with conservative clerics and their supporters ever since his election as pope in a long-running doctrinal struggle between progressives and conservatives over church reform. The clashes included how to handle clerical sex abuse scandals and his tacit approval of parish priests giving communion to divorced-and-remarried couples. His supporters said Francis had tried to make the Church less rigid and dogmatic. His opponents said he had been undermining the moral consistency of the Catholic Church.
Francis had sought to reduce the power of the clerical establishment and to rebrand the papacy to make it more outgoing, less dogmatic and focused on pastoral duties and inclusivity. Where he had been less successful is in winning over the clerical establishment to his vision for the church. In his eight years as pope, Francis has hardly dented the clerical establishment that he inherited. The sense of time running out may have been behind the pontiff’s decision in July 2021 to reverse one of Benedict XVI’s signature decisions and to crack down on the spread of the old Latin Mass in what is being seen as a major challenge to traditionalist Catholics. They immediately condemned it as an attack on them and the ancient liturgy.
He directly addressed priests who are outspoken against his ministry in what was seen as a veiled reference to the Eternal Word Television Network, a Birmingham, AL-based TV network that had pushed back against some of Francis’ initiatives. “Yes, there are also clerics who make nasty comments about me,” Francis said, according to the National Catholic Reporter. “I sometimes lose patience, especially when they make judgments without entering into a real dialogue. I can’t do anything there. However, I go on without entering their world of ideas and fantasies.”
Francis enjoyed fairly robust health during his tenure. The pontiff is reported to go to bed at 9pm and read for an hour before going to sleep for six hours and waking at 4am every day. Lunch is invariably followed by a 45-minute nap.
Pope Francis talks openly about his health conditions. The pontiff had one of his lungs removed as a teenager because of infection, and suffers sciatica causing him to walk with a limp. Francis almost died when he was 21 after developing pleurisy -- an inflammation of the tissues that surround the lung. He had part of one of his lungs removed in October 1957. He also suffered "an almost fatal gallstone infection" at the end of his time as a Jesuit provincial, and had a "brief" issue with his heart in 2004 after a slight narrowing of an artery. Problems with a "fatty liver" were overcome through changes to his diet.
The Vatican has attributed the pope's evident limp and difficulty walking in recent years to sciatica, a chronic nerve condition that causes, back, hip and leg pain. Francis has called it his “troublesome guest.” Francis has also attributed his distinctive limp, which becomes more pronounced when he looks tired, to a flat foot, rather than his sciatica. Sciatica, a chronic nerve condition that causes, back, hip and leg pain and has occasionally forced him to cancel official events. He has dubbed the condition "a troublesome guest". The pope said "When you see me walking like a broody chicken, it's because of that affliction".
Two weeks after surgeons removed a 13-inch section of his colon because of an intestinal narrowing [diverticular stenosis], Pope Francis resumed his weekly appearances on 11 July 2021. Pope Francis showed his dark-humor side at a meeting in September 2021with religious leaders in Slovakia as he remarked on his health. “Still alive,” he quipped on his first international outing since the surgery. “Even though some wanted me dead. I know there were even meetings among priests who thought the pope was in worse shape than what was being said.” Francis had hinted in the past he may follow his predecessor, Benedict XVI, and step aside, if his health seriously deteriorates, rather than follow tradition and die in office.
Pope Francis died at 7:35 AM, on 21 April 2025, Easter Monday, at the age of 88 after battling a serious bout of double pneumonia. Earlier in 2025, Pope Francis had been hospitalized with a polymicrobial respiratory tract infection, which had developed into double pneumonia. His condition required an extended hospital stay, but he was discharged from the hospital on 23 March 2025.
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