VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis died April 21 at the age of 88, the Vat gave new energy to millions of Catholics — and caused concern for some — as he transformed the image of the papacy into a pastoral ministry based on personal encounters and strong convictions about mission, poverty, immigration and dialogue.
U.S. Cardinal Kevin J. Farrell, chamberlain of the Holy Roman Church, announced that Pope Francis had died at 7:35 a.m.
“His whole life was dedicated to the service of the Lord and his church,” Cardinal Farrell said in a video announcement broadcast from the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae, where Pope Francis lived and where he was recovering from pneumonia and respiratory infections. He had been released from Rome’s Gemelli hospital March 23 after more than five weeks of treatment.
Pope Francis “taught us to live the values of the Gospel with fidelity, courage and universal love, especially in favor of the poorest and most marginalized,” Cardinal Farrell said. “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.”
The day before his death, the pope had appeared on the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica to give his Easter blessing “urbi et orbi” (to the city and the world). His voice was weak and he had trouble raising his arm to make the sign of the cross, but afterward he got into the popemobile and drove through the crowds in St. Peter’s Square.
He had also held a surprise meeting with U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance that Sunday. Francis received Vance in the papal residence, the Domus Sanctae Martha, the Vatican had announced. Vance has been in Rome that week, attending Good Friday services in St. Peter’s Basilica with his family and meeting with Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin on April 19.
Pope Francis was often practical and even poetic when speaking about family life, the environment and ministry in the church, but those also were the areas where he frequently unleashed the perplexity and even ire of some Catholics, who were convinced he was trying to change church teaching or practice.
The initial popularity of his pontificate began to be offset by caution and criticism from some sectors of the church, particularly because of the openness he showed toward gay Catholics and toward divorced and civilly remarried Catholics. While insisting he was not changing church teaching, he also insisted Catholics and their parishes must welcome all people seeking God with a sincere heart.
His insistence at World Youth Day in Lisbon, Portugal, in 2023 that in the church there is room for “todos, todos, todos” — “everyone, everyone, everyone” — became a frequent affirmation for the rest of his pontificate.
The iconic images of Pope Francis’ papacy were photographs of him embracing the sick, washing the feet of prisoners and eating with the poor.
In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the image switched to photos of Pope Francis, standing alone in an empty St. Peter’s Square in the rain, verbalizing the fear many people felt, calling upon the Lord’s help to end the pandemic and raising a monstrance with the Blessed Sacrament to bless the city and the world.
The first major health scare of his pontificate came in July 2021 when, after reciting the Sunday Angelus, he went to Rome’s Gemelli hospital for what the Vatican said was pre-scheduled colon surgery. The three-hour operation included a left hemicolectomy, the removal of the descending part of the colon, a surgery that can be recommended to treat diverticulitis, when bulging pouches in the lining of the intestine or colon become inflamed or infected. The pope remained in the hospital 10 days.
Two years later, he was back at Gemelli for what the Vatican said was surgery to correct a hernia. He was taken to the hospital June 7 after his weekly general audience.
Throughout his pontificate, he occasionally canceled events because of bouts of sciatica, a sharp pain that radiates along the path of the sciatic nerve from the lower back and down each leg. But, beginning in late December 2020, he also started having difficulty with his right knee. He later said the problem was a torn ligament and, by early May 2022, he was regularly using a wheelchair. The knee problem also forced him to cancel several events and to postpone a trip to Congo and South Sudan, which he finally made Jan. 31-Feb. 5, 2023.
God’s mercy was a constant theme in his preaching and was so central to his vision of what the church’s ministry must embody that he led an extraordinary Holy Year of Mercy in 2015-16.
Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Dec. 17, 1936 and elected pope March 13, 2013, the Argentine cardinal was the first pope in history to come from the Southern Hemisphere and the first non-European elected in almost 1,300 years. The Jesuit was also the first member of his order to be elected pope and the first member of any religious order elected in nearly two centuries.
Source: Angelus News
