Ace History Desk – Before he became Pope Francis, he was known as Jorge Mario Bergoglio. The son of Italian immigrants, Bergoglio, was born in Argentina on December 17, 1936.
His father, Mario, was an accountant employed by the railways while his mother, Regina, raised the five children.
Bergoglio graduated as a chemical technician and was a janitor and bouncer before choosing the priesthood and entering the Diocesan Seminary of Villa Devoto Buenos Aires.
He entered the Jesuit novitiate in 1958 when in his early 20s and was ordained a priest in 1969.
As Archbishop of Buenos Aires — a diocese with more than 3 million inhabitants — he created a missionary project based on communion and evangelisation.
As Pope Francis, he would become the first pope to be born or raised outside Europe since the Syrian-born Pope Gregory III in AD 731.
In 2001, he was created a cardinal under Pope John Paul II.
He asked the faithful not to journey to Rome to celebrate, but to instead donate to the poor what they would have spent on the trip.
“My people are poor and I am one of them,” he said at various times, explaining his decision to live in an apartment and cook his own supper.
In 2005, he took part in the Conclave in which Pope Benedict XVI was elected.
In 2013, Pope Benedict XVI shocked not just the Catholic community but the world when he announced his decision to step down, saying he no longer had the “strength of mind or body” to carry on.
Cardinals gathered in the Vatican, forming another Conclave before electing Cardinal Bergoglio, who would go on to be known as Pope Francis.
Stepping out onto the balcony of the Vatican, Pope Francis greeted a crowd of 150,000 people who packed into St Peter’s Square to witness the historic moment.
Celebrations extended across the world, including in Pope Francis’s home country of Argentina.
Before Pope Benedict, the only other pope in history who resigned by choice was Celestine V, who stepped down in 1294.
When Pope Francis met his predecessor for lunch, it was the first time such a meeting had been possible for more than 600 years.
Pope Francis would go on to hold the position for more than 10 years.
In 2013, he was named Time magazine’s Person of the Year and gained more than 18 million followers on X.
Throughout his time as pontiff, Pope Francis met with various world leaders.
Pope Francis called for a ceasefire in Gaza and for negotiations to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“I invite every individual, and all people of all nations… to become pilgrims of hope, to silence the sounds of arms and overcome divisions,” he said in his final Christmas Day address in 2024.
Pope Francis was known as a liberal reformer, making headlines across the globe by permitting the blessing of same-sex couples and promoting global action on climate change.
On various occasions he said the worst thing that could happen to the church “is what de Lubac called spiritual worldliness”, which means, “being self-centred”.
Pope Francis oversaw one of the most tumultuous periods in the church’s modern history.
He was outspoken about clergy abuse and called on the Catholic Church to “act decisively” against paedophile priests just months after his 2013 appointment.“
In a 2019 speech, Pope Francis called for an “all-out battle” against the sexual abuse of minors by clergy, a crime which he called abominable and that should be “erased from the face of the Earth”.
“The time has come, then, to work together to eradicate the evil,” he said.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the usually busy St Peter’s Square was deserted due to lockdown restrictions.
In a speech during September in 2020, the pope said the pandemic has “in some ways, given us a chance to develop new ways of living.”
Indeed, “already we can see how the Earth can recover if we allow it to rest: the air becomes cleaner, the waters clearer, and animals have returned to many places from where they had previously disappeared”.
Pope Francis will be laid to rest in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, almost 5 kilometres from the Vatican.
In a break from tradition, he will become the first pope since 1669 to not be laid to rest beneath St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican.
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