Pope Francis, history’s first Latin American pontiff, died of a stroke that put him into a coma and led to heart failure.
He was the 266th pontiff in the Roman Catholic Church, a humble man who rose to the top by always staying true to himself and his values.
He spoke seven languages, elevated 110 cardinals and canonized nearly a thousand new saints.
In a historic conclave, not after the death of a pope, but instead the retirement of Pope Benedict XVI, the doors closed inside the Sistine Chapel with 155 voting cardinals in place.
Outside it was raining steadily so the faithful faltered and left St. Peter’s Square until the white smoke drew them back.
As the bells echoed through Vatican City, massive monitors brought the smokestack into focus.
After just a day and a half, people flooded back to St. Peter’s as the clouds cleared, highlighting tears of joy. Then there was a bit of confusion.
Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the Cardinal from Argentina, was the new Pope, choosing the name Francis as an homage to St. Francis of Assisi who mentored the poor. He spoke softly.
The crowd may not have known Cardinal Bergoglio, but in an instant fell in love with Pope Francis as he asked them to pray for him.
Prayer was often on the mind of Jorge Bergoglio growing up, even though he came later to the priesthood.
Born and raised in a middle-class suburb of Buenos Aires, Jorge Mario grew up with four siblings. His father, Mario, was a railway worker, and his mother, Regina Maria, a housewife, were of Italian descent.
He began his career as a chemist but soon switched course to the seminary. He taught literature, philosophy and theological studies in Argentina. He penned a book with his overriding philosophy in the title — “true power is in service.”
He was ordained as a priest at 33-years-old. Then, Pope John Paul II, named him assistant bishop in Buenos Aires. He was elevated to cardinal in 2001.
But as he rose to the top, his lifestyle remained firmly grounded.
Instead of living in the bishop’s luxury residence, he chose a simple apartment, where he cooked his own meals and navigated the city using public transportation.
As pope, Francis chose casual vestments, wearing his old pectoral cross from Argentina, shunning gold for a gold-plated fisherman’s ring and never wearing the customary papal red shoes, but instead wanting to walk with the people as he led his flock.
He cared for the sick — each year, visiting hospitals, aids hospice and prisons, and washed the feet of the ill.
In his first journey through St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis stopped for a sick man, an image harkening back to Christ embracing the poor and ill.
The Holy Father kissed the head of a disabled man, laying hands on his chest and offering a blessing. He held babies as the people held him up as the man who would make a difference..
The climate changed for the Vatican with the new pontiff and his independent style.
From the night he was elected, he hopped on a bus with his fellow cardinals, rejecting the private luxury car reserved for the Pope. And the next morning, without a security detail or limo, he jumped in a Volkswagen and went out among the people.
The people had high expectations that he would right the wrongs of the church from sexual and financial wrongdoings.
In a first, he faced the media on day one, challenging reporters to join him in the Trinity, a pursuit of truth, goodness and beauty.
In his early moves as pope, he both shocked, angered and embraced.
He, first, made the church more inclusive to women and LGBTQ+ people. Conservatives were not happy, and liberals complained he did not do enough.
He promoted women in the church but refused to ordain them. He maintained he was trying to be inclusive.
He convened a special meeting to directly address what can only be described as a crisis in the Catholic Church — sexual abuse by clergy.
The man known for compassion and kindness had a reputation for being tough on clergy. Chicago’s Cardinal Blase Cupich, a Pope Francis appointee, took center stage in efforts to repair.
Although always in precarious health with part of a lung removed in his twenties, for a decade, the Holy Father still traveled on 45 international trips to:
- Brazil
- Jordan
- Israel
- Palestine
- South Korea
- France
- Turkey
- Bosnia
- Peru
- Africa
- Iraq
- Poland
- Cuba
- United States
Recently, the U.S. leadership, especially most policies regarding immigration, was a target for the Pope as he spoke out harshly against treating people inhumanely.
He criticized war and taught peace; he championed for the environment and strove to make the preaching of the church more simplistic and understandable.
Though counseled by his doctors to rest, the Pope pressed on. Until at 88, bronchitis, then a poly-microbial infection and bilateral pneumonia left him bedridden in the hospital.
And now after Pope Francis took his final breath, as the faithful mourn, a look back on his first words as Holy Father, a prayer then a send-off.