Pope Francis, Groundbreaking Head Of The Catholic Church, Dead At 88

The Catholic Church is mourning the death of Pope Francis, who died on Monday, April 21, 2025, the Vatican confirmed. The beloved religious leader was 88 years old. Pope Francis' death, which occurred shortly after 7.30 a.m., was announced by Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the Vatican camerlengo. "Dear brothers and sisters, with deep sorrow I must announce the death of our Holy Father Francis," he shared in a statement, per CNN. "At 7:35 this morning the Bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the house of the Father. His whole life was dedicated to the service of the Lord and His Church. With immense gratitude for his example as a true disciple of the Lord Jesus, we commend the soul of Pope Francis to the infinite merciful love of the Triune God." 

Shockingly, the Pope had just been spotted by congregants in St. Peter's Square, in recognition of Easter Sunday, although he delegated conducting mass itself to another prominent cardinal. The Bishop of Rome's well-documented health problems began in July 2021 as he underwent surgery on his colon. It was the first time that he was admitted to hospital since being elected pope in 2013 and the surgery understandably caused some concern among his flock. However, in recent years, the leader of the Catholic Church endured a number of additional ailments, including respiratory distress. On February 14, Pope Francis was admitted for bronchitis but remained under the care of doctors as he developed double pneumonia, per NBC News.

Pope Francis was born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Argentina on December 17, 1936, the son of a railway worker and a stay-at-home mom who cared for five children. Pope Francis' father, Mario, and mother, Regina, were Italian immigrants, and he grew up speaking both Spanish and Italian. His sister recalled the young Bergoglio was "a great companion" who "always looked out for friends and family," per Reuters.

But he didn't spend his early years thinking about becoming a priest. According to World Crunch, during a 2012 interview, which he gave before he became pope, then-Cardinal Bergoglio told an interviewer, "When I was young I would occasionally think about becoming a priest, but that was like how as children, you think about being an engineer, a doctor, a musician — you see someone doing that profession, and you consider it." 

As a result, Pope Francis picked up a share of interesting jobs, including working as a nightclub bouncer and a chemical technologist, and even considered a career in medicine at one point. He was reportedly also a fan of dancing the tango. The young Bergoglio even had a girlfriend, whose identity remains a mystery to this day. 

Jorge Mario Bergoglio enjoyed a carefree youth, but all of that changed one fateful day. He said he had been out and about with friends when he passed by a church, which he said he felt compelled to enter. It was there that he met another priest who had been suffering from leukemia. "I felt like somebody grabbed me from inside and took me to the confessional. I'm not sure what happened there, clearly I must have confessed, but I don't know what happened, and when I finished confessing, I asked the priest where he was from, because I didn't know him," Bergoglio said in an interview with La 96, Voz de Caacupe (via World Crunch). "While I was there I felt that I had to become a priest, and I didn't doubt it."

In March 1958, the future Pope Francis joined the Society of Jesus, went to Chile to further his studies in humanities, and then returned to Argentina to get a degree in philosophy, per the Vatican's website. He taught literature and psychology before finally being ordained a priest in December 1969 — more than a decade after he joined the order as a novitiate.

As a member of the Society of Jesus, whose priests are also known as Jesuits, the man who would become Pope Francis was bound by four vows: poverty, chastity, obedience, and obedience to the pope. As an extra, Jesuits are also bound by the promise of not going after high positions within the church hierarchy. Nonetheless, he was on a fast track, becoming the head of the Jesuits in Argentina in 1973, just four years after he was ordained, according to the Vatican's website.

The years Bergoglio served as the provincial, as he was known as the head of the Jesuits, were difficult ones for the country. In 1976, Argentina's government was taken over by a military junta, which ruled until 1983. And in many instances, the Catholic Church either stayed quiet about the atrocities or openly took part in them.

While there were questions about the Jesuit provincial and whether he was complicit, human rights voices of the era, like the 1980 Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Perez Esquivel, clarified that that there was no link between Father Bergoglio and the military leaders. Moreover, after he ascended to the papacy witnesses came forward to confirm that the newly minted pope had, in fact, rescued priests from Argentina's death squads.

After he stepped down as provincial, the future Pope Francis spent more than a decade teaching, studying, and serving as a parish priest before he was appointed Auxiliary of Buenos Aires. He was made a cardinal in 2001 by the prelate who would become his predecessor, John Paul II, which put him within striking distance of the papacy, per the Vatican's website. Throughout his rise through the ranks of the Catholic church's hierarchy, Bergoglio was known for his austerity. Even after becoming a cardinal, he continued to live in a one-bedroom apartment in Buenos Aires. 

And after he became known as Pope Francis, he chose to live in the Vatican guesthouse instead of the Apostolic Palace, according to National Catholic Register. But Pope Francis won't only be remembered for his austerity and his humility; he'll also be remembered for his sense of humor which, at times, might have seemed out of step with those around him. When his peers elected him to the Throne of St. Peter, he said, "May God forgive you." And when he was given a bottle of whiskey by Scottish priests-in-training, he said, "Questa e la vera acqua santa," meaning "This is the real holy water," per the Telegraph.

The Catholic Church remains bereft without the pope, whom the media once dubbed Francis the Humble, and will observe a period of mourning before convening a conclave that will decide Francis' successor.