Pope Francis, the leader of the Catholic Church and its 1.39 billion adherents worldwide, is dead at 88. The Italian-Argentine pontiff—born December 17, 1936—was the first cleric from outside Europe to be raised to the papacy since Gregory III, who was of Syrian origin, in the 8th century.

“At 7:35 this morning (local time), the Bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the house of the Father,” announced Cardinal Kevin Farrell, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life, on Easter Monday.

The late pontiff’s last public appearance was at the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica yesterday, where an aide read an Easter Sunday blessing on his behalf. While his exact cause of death was not officially confirmed as of the time of complication, he was recently hospitalized with a respiratory illness, initially said to be bronchitis. However, speculation that Pope Francis was actually suffering from double pneumonia was later confirmed—a serious condition for someone of his advanced age with only one whole lung.

Born in Argentina to an Italian immigrant father, Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elevated to the papacy, choosing the pontifical name “Francis,” in 2013, following the nearly unprecedented resignation of his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI. Under the Francis papacy, the Vatican was seen by many as adopting more ‘progressive‘ and ‘modernist‘ views on Church teachings, especially regarding the liturgy and mass.

Pope Francis reversed several of Pope Benedict’s decisions, which had allowed the traditionalist movement in the Church to flourish for nearly a decade. This culminated in a de facto ban—for the most part—on the Traditional Latin Mass, a move that received significant criticism from conservative Catholics.

NOT SO PROGRESSIVE?

While often portrayed as a liberal pope, the Francis papacy—outside the liturgy and a handful of other superficial changes—saw little divergence from Church teachings on homosexuality, transgenderism, and abortion. In fact, Pope Francis was an outspoken critic of gender ideology, and a document released by the powerful Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Dignitas Infinita, declared sex-change surgeries and surrogacy to be akin in the gravity of sin to abortion.

He personally intervened when Britain’s socialized National Health Service (NHS) decided to allow ill children such as Charlie Gard to die, against the wishes of their parents, attempting to have them brought to the Vatican-owned Bambino Gesu Children’s Hospital for continued care.

Notably, Pope Francis was also embroiled in a controversy where he allegedly used an Italian slur for homosexuals while arguing against allowing gay men to train as priests. The Pope was later forced to apologize for his choice of words.

Jack Montgomery contributed to this report.

Image by Mazur/cbcew.org.uk.

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