Pope Francis (Latin: Franciscus; Italian: Francesco; Spanish: Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio;^[b] 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State. He is the first pope to be a member of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuit Order), the first from the Americas and the Southern Hemisphere, and the first born or raised outside Europe since the 8th-century papacy of the Syrian pope Gregory III.

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Bergoglio worked for a time as a bouncer and a janitor before training to become a chemist and working as a technician in a food science laboratory. After recovering from a severe case of pneumonia and cysts, he was inspired to join the Jesuits in 1958. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1969; from 1973 to 1979, he was the Jesuit provincial superior in Argentina. He became the archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998 and was created a cardinal in 2001 by Pope John Paul II. He led the Argentine Church during the December 2001 riots in Argentina; the administrations of Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner considered him to be a political rival.

Following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI on 28 February 2013, a papal conclave elected Bergoglio as his successor on 13 March. He chose Francis as his papal name in honour of Saint Francis of Assisi. Throughout his public life, Francis has been noted for his humility, emphasis on God’s mercy, international visibility as pope, concern for the poor and commitment to interreligious dialogue. He is known for having a less formal approach to the papacy than his predecessors by, for instance, choosing to reside in the Domus Sanctae Marthae guest house rather than in the papal apartments of the Apostolic Palace used by previous popes.^[2]

Francis has made women full members of dicasteries in the Roman Curia.^[3][4] He maintains that the Catholic Church should be more sympathetic toward members of the LGBT community and has stated that while blessings of same-sex unions are not permitted, the individuals can be blessed as long as blessings are not given in a liturgical context.^[5] Francis is a critic of unbridled capitalism, consumerism, and overdevelopment;^[6] he has made action on climate change a leading focus of his papacy.^[7] He is widely interpreted as denouncing the death penalty as intrinsically evil^[8] and has termed it “an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person” and “inadmissible”, stating additionally that the Catholic Church is committed to its abolition.^[9] There can be “no going back from this position”, he observed.^[10]

In international diplomacy, Francis has criticized the rise of right-wing populism, called for the decriminalization of homosexuality (though still considering same-sex acts as sinful),^[11] helped to restore full diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba, negotiated a deal with China to define how much influence the Communist Party has in appointing Chinese bishops, and has supported the cause of refugees during the European and Central American migrant crises. He has called on the Western world to increase immigration levels significantly.^[12][13] In 2022, he apologized for the Church‘s role in the “cultural genocide” of the Canadian indigenous peoples.^[14] On 4 October 2023, Francis convened the beginnings of the Synod on Synodality which was described as the culmination of his papacy and the most important event in the Catholic Church since the Second Vatican Council.^[4][15][16] Pope Francis is the first pope to publish a memoir, Hope, which was released on 14 January 2025.^[17]

Early years

Pope Francis was born as Jorge Mario Bergoglio on 17 December 1936^[18] in Flores,^[19] a neighbourhood of Buenos Aires.^[18] He was the eldest^[20] of five children from Mario José Bergoglio (1908–1959) and Regina María Sívori (1911–1981). Mario Bergoglio was an Italian immigrant accountant^[21] born in Portacomaro (Province of Asti) in Italy’s Piedmont region. Regina Sívori^[22] was a housewife born in Buenos Aires to a family of northern Italian (Piedmontese-Genoese) origin.^[23][24][25] Mario Bergoglio’s family left Italy in 1929 to escape the fascist rule of Benito Mussolini.^[26] According to María Elena Bergoglio (born 1948), the pope’s only living sibling, the family did not emigrate for economic reasons.^[27] His other siblings were Oscar Adrián (1938-1997), Marta Regina (1940–2007), and Alberto Horacio (1942–2010).^[28][29] Two great-nephews, Antonio and Joseph, died in a traffic collision.^[30][31] His niece, Cristina Bergoglio, is a painter based in Madrid, Spain.^[32][33]

In the sixth grade, Bergoglio attended Wilfrid Barón de los Santos Ángeles, a school of the Salesians of Don Bosco in Ramos Mejía, Buenos Aires Province. He then attended the technical secondary school Escuela Técnica Industrial Nº 27 Hipólito Yrigoyen,^[34] named after a past Argentine president, and graduated with a chemical technician’s diploma.^[18][35][36] In that capacity, he spent several years working in the food section of Hickethier-Bachmann Laboratory^[37] where he worked under Esther Ballestrino. Earlier, he was a bouncer and a janitor.^[38][39]

When he was 21 years old, after life-threatening pneumonia and three cysts, Bergoglio had part of a lung excised.^[34][40]

Jesuit (1958–2013)

Bergoglio found his vocation to the priesthood while on his way to celebrate the Spring Day. He passed by a church to go to confession and was inspired by a priest.^[41] Bergoglio then studied at the archdiocesan seminary, Inmaculada Concepción Seminary, in Villa Devoto, Buenos Aires, and, after three years, entered the Society of Jesus as a novice on 11 March 1958.^[42] Bergoglio has said that, as a young seminarian, he had a crush on a girl he met and briefly doubted about continuing the religious career.^[43] As a Jesuit novice, he studied the humanities in Santiago, Chile.^[44] After his novitiate in the Society of Jesus, Bergoglio officially became a Jesuit on 12 March 1960 when he made the religious profession of the initial, perpetual vows of poverty, chastity and obedience of a member of the order.^[45][46]

In 1960, Bergoglio obtained a licentiate in philosophy from the Colegio Máximo de San José in San Miguel, Buenos Aires Province. He taught then literature and psychology at the Colegio de la Inmaculada Concepción, a high school in Santa Fe, from 1964 to 1965. In 1966, he taught the same courses at the Colegio del Salvador in Buenos Aires.^[18][47]

Presbyterate (1969–1992)

In 1967, Bergoglio began his theological studies at Facultades de Filosofía y Teología de San Miguel. On 13 December 1969, he was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Ramón José Castellano. He served as the master of novices for the province there and became a professor of theology.^[48]

Bergoglio completed his final stage of spiritual training as a Jesuit, tertianship, at Alcalá de Henares, Spain, and took final, solemn vows as a Jesuit, including the fourth vow of obedience to missioning by the pope, on 22 April 1973.^[46] He was named provincial superior of the Society of Jesus in Argentina that July for a six-year term which ended in 1979.^[18][49] In 1973, shortly after being named provincial superior, he had made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, but his stay was shortened by the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War.^[50] After the completion of his term of office, he was named, in 1980, the rector of the Philosophical and Theological Faculty of San Miguel where he had studied.^[51] Before taking up this new appointment, he spent the first three months of 1980 in Ireland to learn English, staying at the Jesuit Centre at the Milltown Institute of Theology and Philosophy, Dublin.^[52] He then served at San Miguel for six years until 1986^[18] when, at the discretion of Jesuit superior-general Peter Hans Kolvenbach, he was replaced by someone more in tune with the worldwide trend in the Society of Jesus toward emphasizing social justice rather than his emphasis on popular religiosity and direct pastoral work.^[53]

Bergoglio then spent several months at the Sankt Georgen Graduate School of Philosophy and Theology in Frankfurt, Germany, and considered possible dissertation topics.^[54] He settled on exploring the work of the German/Italian theologian Romano Guardini, particularly his study of “Contrast” published in his 1925 work Der Gegensatz. He then returned to Argentina earlier than expected to serve as a confessor and spiritual director to the Jesuit community in Córdoba.^[55] It was believed that while in Germany, Bergoglio saw the painting of Mary, Untier of Knots in Augsburg and brought a copy of the painting to Argentina; however, in an interview for the German newsweekly Die Zeit in 2017, Pope Francis stated that he had never been to Augsburg.^[56][c] As a student at the Salesian school, Bergoglio was mentored by Ukrainian Greek Catholic priest Stefan Czmil. Bergoglio often rose hours before his classmates to serve Divine Liturgy for Czmil.^[59][60]

In 1992, Jesuit authorities asked Bergoglio not to live in Jesuit residences due to ongoing tensions with leaders and scholars; concerns about his “dissent,” views on Catholic orthodoxy, and opposition to liberation theology; and his role as auxiliary bishop of Buenos Aires.^[61][62][63] As a bishop, he was no longer subject to his Jesuit superior.^[64] From then on, he no longer visited Jesuit houses and was in “virtual estrangement from the Jesuits” until after his election as pope.^[53][61]

Pre-papal episcopate (1992–2013)

Bergoglio was named Auxiliary Bishop of Buenos Aires in 1992 and was consecrated on 27 June 1992 as titular bishop of Auca,^[18][65] with Cardinal Antonio Quarracino, archbishop of Buenos Aires, serving as principal consecrator.^[66] He chose his episcopal motto to be Miserando atque eligendo,^[67] drawn from Saint Bede‘s homily on Matthew 9:9–13: “because he saw him through the eyes of mercy and chose him”.^[68]

On 3 June 1997, Bergoglio was appointed coadjutor archbishop of Buenos Aires, after which he became metropolitan archbishop after Quarracino’s death on 28 February 1998. As archbishop, he established new parishes, restructured the archdiocese, led pro-life efforts, and formed a commission on divorces.^[18][69] One of Bergoglio’s major initiatives as archbishop was to increase the church’s presence in the slums of Buenos Aires. Under his leadership, the number of priests assigned to work in the slums doubled.^[70] This work led to him being called the “Slum Bishop.”^[71]

Early in his tenure as archbishop, Bergoglio sold the archdiocese’s bank shares and moved its accounts to regular international banks. This ended the church’s high spending habits, which had nearly led to bankruptcy, and enforced stricter fiscal discipline.^[72]

On 6 November 1998, while remaining archbishop of Buenos Aires, Bergoglio was named ordinary for Eastern Catholics in Argentina who lacked a prelate of their own church.^[66] Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk said that Bergoglio understands the liturgy, rites, and spirituality of Shevchuk’s Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and always “took care of our Church in Argentina” as ordinary for Eastern Catholics during his time as archbishop of Buenos Aires.^[60]

In 2000, Bergoglio was the only church official to reconcile with Jerónimo Podestá, a former bishop who had been suspended as a priest after opposing the Argentine Revolution military dictatorship in 1972. He also defended Podestá’s wife from Vatican attacks on their marriage.^[73][74][75] That same year, Bergoglio said the Argentine Catholic Church needed “to put on garments of public penance for the sins committed during the years of the dictatorship” in the 1970s, during the Dirty War.^[76]

Bergoglio regularly celebrated the Holy Thursday foot-washing ritual in jails, hospitals, retirement homes, and slums.^[77] In 2007, shortly after Benedict XVI introduced new rules for pre-Vatican II liturgical forms, Bergoglio established a weekly Mass in this extraordinary form of the Roman Rite.^[78][79]

On 8 November 2005, Bergoglio was elected president of the Argentine Episcopal Conference for a three-year term (2005–08).^[80] He was reelected to another three-year term on 11 November 2008.^[81] He remained a member of that commission’s permanent governing body, the president of its committee for the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina, and a member of its liturgy committee for the care of shrines.^[66] While head of the Argentine Catholic bishops’ conference, Bergoglio issued a collective apology for his church’s failure to protect people from the junta during the Dirty War.^[82] When he turned 75 in December 2011, Bergoglio submitted his resignation as archbishop of Buenos Aires to Pope Benedict XVI as required by canon law.^[50] Still, as he had no coadjutor archbishop, he stayed in office, waiting for an eventual replacement appointed by the Vatican.^[83]

Cardinalate (2001–2013)

On 21 February 2001, Pope John Paul II made Archbishop Bergoglio a cardinal, assigning him the title of cardinal priest of San Roberto Bellarmino, a Jesuit church. Bergoglio was installed there on 14 October. During his trip to Rome for the ceremony, he and his sister María Elena visited their father’s hometown in northern Italy.^[27] As cardinal, Bergoglio was appointed to five administrative positions in the Roman Curia. He was a member of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, the Congregation for the Clergy, the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, the Pontifical Council for the Family, and the Commission for Latin America. Later that year, when Cardinal Edward Egan returned to New York following the September 11 attacks, Bergoglio replaced him as relator (recording secretary) in the Synod of Bishops,^[84] and, according to the Catholic Herald, created “a favourable impression as a man open to communion and dialogue”.^[85][86]

Cardinal Bergoglio was known for his personal humility, doctrinal conservatism, and commitment to social justice.^[87] His simple lifestyle, including living in a small apartment rather than the elegant bishop’s residence, using public transportation, and cooking his own meals, enhanced his reputation for humility.^[88] He limited his time in Rome to “lightning visits.”^[89] He was devoted to St. Thérèse of Lisieux and enclosed a small picture of her in the letters he wrote, calling her “a great missionary saint”.^[90]

After Pope John Paul II died on 2 April 2005, Bergoglio attended his funeral and was considered one of the papabile for succession to the papacy.^[91] He then participated as a cardinal elector in the 2005 papal conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI. In the National Catholic Reporter, John L. Allen Jr. reported that Bergoglio was a frontrunner in the 2005 conclave.^[87][92] In September 2005, the Italian magazine Limes published claims that Bergoglio had been the runner-up and main challenger to Cardinal Ratzinger at that conclave and that he had received 40 votes in the third ballot but fell back to 26 at the fourth and decisive ballot.^[93][94] The claims were based on a diary purportedly belonging to an anonymous cardinal who had been present at the conclave.^[93][95] According to the Italian journalist Andrea Tornielli, this number of votes had no precedent for a Latin American papabile.^[95] La Stampa reported that Bergoglio was in close contention with Ratzinger during the election until he made an emotional plea that the cardinals should not vote for him.^[96] According to Tornielli, Bergoglio made this request to prevent the conclave from delaying too much in the election of a pope.^[97]

As a cardinal, Bergoglio was associated with Communion and Liberation, a Catholic evangelical lay movement of the type known as associations of the faithful.^[87][98] He sometimes made appearances at the annual gathering known as the Rimini Meeting held during the late summer months in Italy.^[87] In 2005, Cardinal Bergoglio authorized the request for beatification—the third step toward sainthood—for six members of the Pallottine community murdered in the San Patricio Church massacre.^[99][100] At the same time, Bergoglio ordered an investigation into the murders themselves which had been widely blamed on the National Reorganization Process, the military junta that ruled Argentina at the time.^[100]

Argentine government relations

Dirty War

See also: Dirty War

Bergoglio was the subject of allegations regarding the Argentine Navy‘s kidnapping of two Jesuit priests, Orlando Yorio and Franz Jalics, in May 1976, during Argentina’s Dirty War.^[101] He feared for the priests’ safety and had tried to change their work prior to their arrest; contrary to reports, he did not try to throw them out of the Jesuit order.^[102] In 2005, Myriam Bregman, a human rights lawyer, filed a criminal complaint against Bergoglio, as superior in the Society of Jesus of Argentina, accusing him of involvement in the kidnapping.^[103] Her complaint did not specify how Bergoglio was involved; Bergoglio’s spokesman flatly denied the allegations. The complaint was ultimately dismissed,^[101] and the priests were tortured^[104] but were found alive five months later, drugged and semi-naked.

Yorio accused Bergoglio of effectively handing them over to the death squads by declining to tell the authorities that he endorsed their work. Yorio, who died in 2000, said in a 1999 interview that he believed that Bergoglio did nothing “to free us, in fact just the opposite”.^[105] Jalics initially refused to discuss the complaint after moving into seclusion in a German monastery.^[106] Two days after the election of Francis, Jalics issued a statement confirming the kidnapping and attributing the cause to a former lay colleague who became a guerrilla, was captured, then named Yorio and Jalics when interrogated.^[107] The following week, Jalics issued a second, clarifying statement: “It is wrong to assert that our capture took place at the initiative of Father Bergoglio (…) the fact is, Orlando Yorio and I were not denounced by Father Bergoglio.”^[108][109]

Bergoglio told his authorized biographer, Sergio Rubin, that after the priests’ imprisonment, he worked behind the scenes for their release; Bergoglio’s intercession with dictator Jorge Rafael Videla on their behalf may have saved their lives.^[110] Bergoglio also told Rubin that he had often sheltered people from the dictatorship on church property, and once gave his own identity papers to a man who looked like him so that he could flee Argentina.^[104] The interview with Rubin, reflected in the biography El jesuita, is the only time Bergoglio has spoken to the press about those events.^[111] Alicia Oliveira, a former Argentine judge, also reported that Bergoglio helped people flee Argentina during the rule of the junta.^[112] Since Francis became pope, Gonzalo Mosca^[113] and José Caravias^[114] have related accounts to journalists of how Bergoglio helped them flee the Argentine dictatorship.

Oliveira described the future pope as “anguished” and “very critical of the dictatorship” during the Dirty War.^[115] Oliveira met with him at the time and urged Bergoglio to speak out—he told her that “he couldn’t. That it wasn’t an easy thing to do.”^[105] Artist and human rights activist Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, the 1980 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, said: “Perhaps he didn’t have the courage of other priests, but he never collaborated with the dictatorship… Bergoglio was no accomplice of the dictatorship.”^[116][117] Graciela Fernández Meijide, member of the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights, also said that there was no proof linking Bergoglio with the dictatorship. She told the Clarín newspaper: “There is no information and Justice couldn’t prove it. I was in the APDH during all the dictatorship years and I received hundreds of testimonies. Bergoglio was never mentioned. It was the same in the CONADEP. Nobody mentioned him as instigator or as anything.”^[118] Ricardo Lorenzetti, President of the Argentine Supreme Court, also has said that Bergoglio is “completely innocent” of the accusations.^[119] Historian Uki Goñi pointed that, during early 1976, the military junta still had a good image among society, and that the scale of the political repression was not known until much later; Bergoglio would have had little reason to suspect that the detention of Yorio and Jalics could end up in their deaths.^[120]

When Bergoglio became pope, an alleged photo of him giving the sacramental bread to dictator Jorge Rafael Videla became popular in social networks. It has also been used by the newspaper Página/12.^[121] The photo was soon proved to be false. It was revealed that the priest, whose face is not visible in the photo, was Carlos Berón de Astrada. The photo was taken at the church “Pequeña Obra de la Divina Providencia Don Orione” in 1990, not during the Dirty War, and after Videla’s presidential pardon. The photo was produced by the agency AFP and initially published by the Crónica newspaper.^[122]

Fernando de la Rúa

Fernando de la Rúa replaced Carlos Menem as president of Argentina in 1999. As an archbishop, Bergoglio celebrated the annual Mass at the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Cathedral on the First National Government holiday, 25 May. In 2000, Bergoglio criticized the perceived apathy of society.^[123] During Argentina’s economic depression, the Catholic Church criticized the government’s austerity measures, which worsened poverty. De la Rúa asked the church to facilitate dialogue between economic and political leaders to address the crisis. Although he claimed to have spoken with Bergoglio about participating, Bergoglio reportedly said the meeting was canceled due to a misunderstanding by De la Rúa’s assistant. Bishop Jorge Casaretto has doubted this, noting that De la Rúa only made the request in newspaper interviews, not formally to the church.^[124]

In the 2001 elections, the Justicialist Party won a majority in Congress and appointed Ramón Puerta as Senate president. With Vice-president Carlos Álvarez having resigned, the opposing party was next in line. Bergoglio met with Puerta and was positively impressed. Puerta assured him that the Justicialist Party was not planning to oust De la Rúa and promised to support the president in advancing necessary legislation.^[125]

During police repression of the riots of December 2001, Bergoglio contacted the Ministry of the Interior and asked that the police distinguish rioters and vandals from peaceful protesters.^[126]

Néstor and Cristina Kirchner

When Bergoglio celebrated Mass at the cathedral for the 2004 First National Government holiday, President Néstor Kirchner attended and heard Bergoglio request more political dialogue, reject intolerance, and criticize exhibitionism and strident announcements.^[127] Kirchner celebrated the national day elsewhere the following year and the Mass in the cathedral was suspended.^[128] In 2006, Bergoglio helped the fellow Jesuit Joaquín Piña win the elections in the Misiones Province and prevent an amendment of the local constitution that would allow indefinite re-elections. Kirchner intended to use that project to start similar amendments at other provinces and eventually implement it in the national constitution.^[129] Kirchner considered Bergoglio as a political rival to the day he died in October 2010.^[130] Bergoglio’s relations with Kirchner’s widow and successor, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, have been similarly tense. In 2008, Bergoglio called for national reconciliation during disturbances in the country’s agricultural regions, which the government interpreted as a support for anti-government demonstrators.^[130] The campaign to enact same-sex marriage legislation was a particularly tense period in their relations.^[130]

When Bergoglio was elected pope, initial reactions were mixed. Most of the Argentine society cheered it, but the pro-government newspaper Página/12 published renewed allegations about the Dirty War, and the president of the National Library described a global conspiracy theory. The president took more than an hour before congratulating the new pope and only did so in a passing reference within a routine speech. Due to the pope’s popularity in Argentina, Cristina Kirchner made what the political analyst Claudio Fantini called a “Copernican shift” in her relations with him and fully embraced the Francis phenomenon.^[131] On the day before his inauguration as pope, Bergoglio, now Francis, had a private meeting with Kirchner where they exchanged gifts and lunched together. This was the new pope’s first meeting with a head of state, and there was speculation that the two were mending their relations.^[132][133] Página/12 then removed their controversial articles about Bergoglio, written by Horacio Verbitsky, from their web page as a result of this change.^[134]

Javier Milei

Before Javier Milei‘s election to the Argentine presidency, he was very critical of Francis, describing him as “imbecile” and a “communist turd.” His disparaging comments sparked controversy among Catholics.^[135] However, following his inauguration, Milei softened his position and formally invited Francis to Argentina. Milei visited the Vatican on 11 February 2024, the day Francis canonized María Antonia de Paz y Figueroa, the first female Argentine saint.^[136]

Papacy (2013–present)

See also: Theology of Pope Francis § Vatican II revisited, and Theology of Pope Francis § Church leadership

Coat of arms of Pope Francis

As cardinal

As pope

The gold star represents the Virgin Mary, the grape-like plant—the spikenard—is associated with Saint Joseph and the IHS is the symbol of the Jesuits.^{[137][138][139]}

Elected at 76 years old, Francis was reported to be healthy; his doctors have said his missing lung tissue, removed in his youth, does not significantly affect his health.^[140] The only concern, however, would be decreased respiratory reserve if he had a respiratory infection.^[141] In the past, one attack of sciatica in 2007 prevented him from attending a consistory and subsequently delayed his return to Argentina for several days.^[89]

Francis is the first Jesuit pope. This was a significant appointment because of the sometimes tense relations between the Society of Jesus and the Holy See.^[142] He came in second to Cardinal Ratzinger on all the ballots in the 2005 conclave and, at the time, appeared as the only other viable candidate.^[143] He is also the first from the Americas,^[144] and the first from the Southern Hemisphere.^[145] Many media reported him as being the first non-European pope, but he is actually the 11th; the previous was Gregory III from Syria who died in 741. Moreover, although Francis was not born in Europe, he is ethnically European; his father and maternal grandparents were from northern Italy.^[146]

As pope, Francis’s manner is less formal than that of his immediate predecessors: a style that news coverage has referred to as “no frills”, noting that it is “his common touch and accessibility that is proving the greatest inspiration”.^[147] On the night of his election, he took a bus back to his hotel with the cardinals rather than being driven in the papal car.^[148] The next day, he visited Cardinal Jorge María Mejía in the hospital and chatted with patients and staff.^[149] At his first media audience, the Saturday after his election, the pope explained his papal name choice, citing Saint Francis of Assisi as “the man who gives us this spirit of peace, the poor man”; he added “[h]ow I would like a poor Church, and for the poor”.^[150]

In addition to his native Spanish, he speaks fluent Italian (the official language of Vatican City and the “everyday language” of the Holy See) and German. He is also conversant in Latin (the official language of the Holy See),^[151] French,^[152] Portuguese,^[153] and English,^[154][155]; he also understands the Piedmontese language and some Genoese.^[156]

Francis chose not to live in the official papal residence in the Apostolic Palace but instead remains in the Vatican guest house in a suite in which he can receive visitors and hold meetings. He is the first pope since Pope Pius X to live outside the papal apartments.^[157] Francis still appears at the window of the Apostolic Palace for the Sunday Angelus.^[158]

As a Jesuit pope, Francis has been “making clear that a fundamental task of the faithful is not so much to follow rules but to discern what God is calling them to do. He has been altering the culture of the clergy, steering away from what he has named as “clericalism” (which dwells on priestly status and authority) and toward an ethic of service (Francis says the church’s shepherds must have the “smell of the sheep”, always staying close to the People of God).”^[159]

On 13 December 2023, in an interview with Mexican broadcaster Televisa, Francis said that his “great devotion” was to the Salus populi Romani icon at the Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. Francis also told the news outlet that his tomb was already prepared at the basilica near the icon. Francis will be the first pope since Pope Leo XIII to be buried outside the Vatican.^[160]

Election

Main articles: 2013 papal conclave and Papal inauguration of Pope Francis

Bergoglio was elected pope on 13 March 2013,^{[18][161][162]} the second day of the 2013 papal conclave, after which he took the papal name Francis.^[18][163] Francis was elected on the fifth ballot of the conclave.^[164] The Habemus papam announcement was delivered by the cardinal protodeacon, Jean-Louis Tauran.^[165] Cardinal Christoph Schönborn later said that Bergoglio was elected following two supernatural signs, one in the conclave—and hence confidential—and one with Latin-American couple, friends of Schönborn at Vatican City, who whispered Bergoglio’s name in the elector’s ear; Schönborn commented “if these people say Bergoglio, that’s an indication of the Holy Spirit”.^[166]

Instead of accepting his cardinals’ congratulations while seated on the papal throne, Francis received them standing, reportedly an immediate sign of a changing approach to formalities at the Vatican.^[167] During his first appearance as pontiff on the balcony of Saint Peter’s Basilica, he wore a white cassock, not the red, ermine-trimmed mozzetta^[167][168] used by previous popes.^[169] He also wore the same iron pectoral cross that he had worn as archbishop of Buenos Aires, rather than the gold one worn by his predecessors.^[168]

After being elected and choosing his name, his first act was bestowing the Urbi et Orbi blessing on thousands of pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square. Before blessing the crowd, he asked those in St. Peter’s Square to pray for his predecessor, “the bishop emeritus of Rome” Pope Benedict XVI, and for himself as the new “bishop of Rome”.^[170]

Francis held his papal inauguration on 19 March 2013 in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican.^[18] He celebrated Mass in the presence of various political and religious leaders from around the world.^[171] In his homily, Francis focused on the Solemnity of Saint Joseph, the liturgical day on which the Mass was celebrated.^[172]

Name

At his first audience on 16 March 2013, Francis told journalists that he had chosen the name in honour of Saint Francis of Assisi and had done so because he was especially concerned for the well-being of the poor.^{[173][174][175]} He explained that, as it was becoming clear during the conclave voting that he would be elected the new bishop of Rome, the Brazilian Cardinal Cláudio Hummes had embraced him and whispered, “Don’t forget the poor”, which made Bergoglio think of the saint.^[176][177] Bergoglio had previously expressed his admiration for St. Francis, explaining that: “He brought to Christianity an idea of poverty against the luxury, pride, vanity of the civil and ecclesiastical powers of the time. He changed history.”^[178]

This is the first time that a pope has been named “Francis.” On the day of his election, the Vatican clarified that his official papal name was “Francis” and not “Francis I”, i.e. no regnal number is used for him. A Vatican spokesman said that the name would become Francis I if and when there is a Francis II.^[174][179] It is the first time since Lando‘s 913–914 pontificate that a serving pope holds a name not used by a predecessor.^[d]

Francis also said that some cardinal electors had jokingly suggested to him that he should choose either “Adrian”, since Adrian VI had been a reformer of the church, or “Clement”, to settle the score with Clement XIV who had suppressed the Jesuit order.^[150][181] In February 2014, it was reported that Bergoglio, had he been elected in 2005, would have chosen the pontifical name of “John XXIV” in honour of John XXIII. It was also said that he had told Cardinal Francesco Marchisano: “John, I would have called myself John, like the Good Pope; I would have been completely inspired by him.”^[182]

Curia

On 16 March 2013, Francis asked all those in senior positions of the Roman Curia to provisionally continue in office.^[183] He named Alfred Xuereb as his personal secretary.^[184] On 6 April, he named José Rodríguez Carballo as secretary for the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, a position that had been vacant for several months.^[185] Francis abolished the bonuses paid to Vatican employees upon the election of a new pope, amounting to several million Euros, opting instead to donate the money to charity.^[186] He also abolished the €25,000 annual bonus paid to the cardinals serving on the Board of Supervisors for the Vatican bank.^[187]

On 13 April 2013, Francis named eight cardinals to a new Council of Cardinal Advisers to advise him on revising the organizational structure of the Roman Curia. The group included several known as critics of Vatican operations and only one member of the Curia.^[188] They are Giuseppe Bertello, president of the Vatican City State governorate; Francisco Javier Errazuriz Ossa from Chile; Oswald Gracias from India; Reinhard Marx from Germany; Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya from the Democratic Republic of the Congo; George Pell from Australia; Seán O’Malley from the United States; and Óscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga from Honduras. He appointed Bishop Marcello Semeraro secretary for the group and scheduled its first meeting for 1–3 October.^[189]

Early issues

In March 2013, 21 British Catholic peers and members of Parliament from all parties asked Francis to allow married men in Great Britain to be ordained as priests, keeping celibacy as the rule for bishops. They asked it on the grounds that it would be anomalous that married Anglican priests can be received into the Catholic Church and ordained as priests by means of either the Pastoral Provision of 20 June 1980 or the 2009 Anglican ordinariate, but married Catholic men cannot do the same.^[190]

Fouad Twal, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, included a call in his 2013 Easter homily for the pope to visit Jerusalem.^[191] Louis Raphael I, the Chaldean Catholic Patriarch, asked the pope to visit the “embattled Christian community” in Iraq.^[192] In March 2021, Pope Francis went to Iraq on a first-ever papal visit to the diminishing Christian communities of Mesopotamia fallen apart after years of conflict.^[193]

On the first Holy Thursday following his election, Francis washed and kissed the feet of 10 male and two female juvenile offenders, not all Catholic, aged 14–21, imprisoned at Rome’s Casal del Marmo detention facility, telling them the ritual of foot washing is a sign that he is at their service.^[194] This was the first time that a pope had included women in this ritual, although he had already done so when he was archbishop.^[194] One of the male and one of the female prisoners were Muslim.^[194]

On 31 March 2013, Francis used his first Easter homily to make a plea for peace throughout the world, specifically mentioning the Middle East, Africa, and North and South Korea.^[195] He also spoke out against those who give in to “easy gain” in a world filled with greed and made a plea for humanity to become a better guardian of creation by protecting the environment.^[195] He said that “[w]e ask the risen Jesus, who turns death into life, to change hatred into love, vengeance into forgiveness, war into peace.”^[196] In 2019, he stated that ecocide was a sin and should be made “a fifth category of crimes against peace, which should be recognised as such by the international community”.^{[197][198][199]}

Although the Vatican had prepared greetings in 65 languages, Francis chose not to read them.^[155] According to the Vatican, the pope “at least for now, feels at ease using Italian, the everyday language of the Holy See”.^[200]

In 2013, Francis initially reaffirmed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith‘s programme to reform the U.S. Leadership Conference of Women Religious^[201] which had been initiated under his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI. The New York Times reported that the Vatican had formed the opinion in 2012 that the sisters‘ group had some feminist influences, focused too much on ending social and economic injustice and not enough on stopping abortion, and permitted speakers at its meetings who questioned church doctrine.^[202][203] In April 2015 the investigation was brought to a close. While the timing of the closure may have anticipated a visit by Francis to the U.S. in September 2015, it was noted that the sisters’ emphasis is close to that of Francis.^[204]

On 12 May, Francis carried out his first canonizations of candidates approved for sainthood during the reign of Benedict XVI: the first Colombian saint, Laura of Saint Catherine of Siena and the second female Mexican saint, María Guadalupe García Zavala, both of the 20th century, along with the 813 15th-century Martyrs of Otranto. He said: “While we venerate the martyrs of Otranto, ask God to support the many Christians who still suffer from violence and give them the courage and fate and respond to evil with goodness.”^[205]

Synodal church

See also: Theology of Pope Francis § Decentralization

Francis has overseen synods on the family (2014), on youth (2018), and on the church in the Amazon region (2019). In 2019 Francis’s apostolic constitution Episcopalis communio allowed that the final document of a synod may become magisterial teaching simply with papal approval. The constitution also allowed for laity to contribute input directly to the synod’s secretary general.^[206] Some analysts see the creation of a truly synodal church as likely to become the greatest contribution of Francis’s papacy.^[207]

On 4 October 2023, Francis convened the beginnings of the Synod on Synodality (the Sixteenth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops). This synod is described as the culmination of his papacy and the most important event in the Church since the Second Vatican Council.^[15][16]

Consultation with Catholic laity

A February 2014 survey by the World Values Survey cited in The Washington Post and Time showed how the unity Francis had created could be challenged. Although views about Francis personally were favourable, many Catholics disagreed with at least some of his teachings. The survey found that members of the Catholic Church had been deeply divided over abortion, artificial contraception, divorce, the ordination of women, and married priests.^[208][209] In the same month, Francis asked parishes to provide answers to an official questionnaire^[210] described as a “much broader consultation than just a survey”^[211] regarding opinions among the laity. He continued to assert Catholic doctrine, in less dramatic tone than his recent predecessors, who maintained that the Catholic Church is not a democracy of popular opinion.^[212]

Linda Woodhead of Lancaster University wrote of the survey Francis initiated: “it’s not a survey in any sense that a social scientist would recognize”. Woodhead said that many ordinary Catholics would have difficulty understanding theological jargon there. Nonetheless, she suspected the survey might be influential.^[213]

The Catholic Church in England and Wales as of April 2014 refused to publish results of this survey; a church spokesman said a senior Vatican official had expressly asked for summaries to remain confidential and that orders had come from the pope that the information should not be made public until after October; this disappointed many reformers who hoped the laity would be more involved in decision-making. Some other Catholic churches, such as in Germany and Austria, published summaries of the responses to the survey which showed a wide gap between church teaching and the behaviour of ordinary Catholics.^[211]

In a column he wrote for the Vatican’s semi-official newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, the then-Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura and American cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, who has a long-standing reputation as one of the church’s most vocal conservative hard-liners, said that Francis opposed both abortion and gay marriage.^[214] The Vatican’s chief spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, also noted in the Vatican press office during the 2014 consistory meetings that Francis and Cardinal Walter Kasper would not change or redefine any dogmas pertaining to church theology on doctrinal matters.^[215]

Institute for the Works of Religion

In the first months of Francis’s papacy, the Institute for the Works of Religion, informally known as the Vatican Bank, said that it would become more transparent in its financial dealings.^[216] There had long been allegations of corruption and money laundering connected with the bank.^[217][218] Francis appointed a commission to advise him about reform of the Bank,^[217][218] and the finance consulting firm Promontory Financial Group was assigned to carry out a comprehensive investigation of all customer contacts of the bank on these facts.^[219] Because of this affair, the Promoter of Justice at the Vatican Tribunal applied a letter rogatory for the first time in the history of the Republic of Italy at the beginning of August 2013.^[220] In January 2014, Francis replaced four of the five cardinal overseers of the Vatican Bank who had been confirmed in their positions in the final days of Benedict XVI’s papacy.^[221] Lay experts and clerics were looking into how the bank was run. Ernst von Freyberg was put in charge. Moneyval feels more reform is needed, and Francis has shown some willingness to close the bank if the reforms prove too difficult.^[222] There has been uncertainty how far reforms can succeed.^[223]

Papal documents

On 29 June 2013, Francis published the encyclical Lumen fidei, which was largely the work of Benedict XVI but awaited a final draft at his retirement.^[224] On 24 November 2013, Francis published his first major letter as pope, the apostolic exhortation Evangelii gaudium,^[225] which he described as the programmatic of his papacy.^[226] On 18 June 2015, he published his first own encyclical Laudato si’ concerning care for the planet.^[227] On 8 April 2016, Francis published his second apostolic exhortation, Amoris laetitia,^[228] remarking on love within the family. Controversy arose at the end of 2016 when four cardinals formally asked Francis for clarifications, particularly on the issue of giving communion to divorced and civilly remarried Catholics.^[229]

His motu proprios include Ai nostri tempi and De concordia inter codices. Francis issued another titled Maiorem hac dilectionem which created a new path toward canonization for certain causes.

Francis established two new Secretariats (top-level departments) in the Roman Curia: the Secretariat for the Economy and the Secretariat for Communications. He simplified the process for declaring matrimonial nullity.^[230]

On 8 December 2017, Francis signed a new apostolic constitution on ecclesiastical universities and faculties Veritatis gaudium, published 29 January 2018.^[231]

A further apostolic exhortation, Gaudete et exsultate (Rejoice and be glad), was published on 19 March 2018, dealing with “the call to holiness in today’s world” for all persons. He counters contemporary versions of the gnostic and Pelagian heresies and describes how Jesus’s beatitudes call people to “go against the flow”.^[232]

In February 2019, Francis acknowledged that priests and bishops were sexually abusing religious sisters.^[233] He addressed this and the clergy sex abuse scandal by convening a summit on clergy sexual abuse in Rome 21–24 February 2019.^[234] As a follow-up to that summit, on 9 May 2019 Francis promulgated the motu proprio Vos estis lux mundi which specified responsibilities, including reporting directly to the Holy See on bishops and on one’s superior, while simultaneously involving another bishop in the archdiocese of the accused bishop.^[235]

On 30 September 2020, he published the apostolic letter Scripturae sacrae affectus to celebrate the 16th centenary of the death of Jerome.^[236][237]

On 4 October 2020, on the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, Francis published the encyclical Fratelli tutti on fraternity and social friendship, using St. Francis’s own words to describe our universal brotherhood and sisterhood.^[238]

On 8 December 2020, on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, Pope Francis published the apostolic letter Patris corde (“With a Father’s Heart”).^[239] To mark the occasion, the Pope proclaimed a “Year of Saint Joseph” from 8 December 2020 to 8 December 2021 on the 150th Anniversary of the Proclamation of Saint Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church.^[240]

On 1 June 2021, Francis published the apostolic constitution Pascite gregem Dei. The document reformed Vatican penal law by strengthening the penalties for sexual abuse and financial crimes; it also more harshly punishing the ordination of women.^[241]

Francis issued the motu proprio Traditionis custodes on 16 July 2021. The document abrogated the permissions for the celebration of the Tridentine Mass previously established by Benedict XVI in the 2007 Summorum Pontificum, with Traditionis custodes instituting increased restrictions on the use of the 1962 Roman Missal. Pope Francis stated in a letter accompanying the motu proprio that emphasizing the Mass of Paul VI would bring the “unity I intend to re-establish throughout the Church of the Roman Rite”.^[242] On 11 February, Pope Francis met with two priests from the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter (FSSP) and reassured them that Traditionis Custodes did not affect their community and gave them permission, in writing, to use all the liturgical books of 1962. He also implied that Traditionis Custodes did not apply to all traditional Catholic communities, not just the FSSP.^[243]

Ecumenism and interreligious dialogue

Main article: Ecumenism and interreligious dialogue of Pope Francis

Pope Francis upheld the Second Vatican Council’s tradition by promoting ecumenism with other Christian denominations, encouraging dialogue with other religions, and supporting peace with secular individuals.

Clerical titles

See also: Theology of Pope Francis § Clericalism

In January 2014, Francis said that he would appoint fewer monsignors and only assign those honoured to the lowest of the three surviving ranks of monsignor, chaplain of His Holiness; it would be awarded only to diocesan priests at least 65 years old. During his 15 years as archbishop of Buenos Aires, Francis never sought the title for any of his priests. It is believed he associates it with clerical careerism and hierarchy, although he did not apply this restriction to clergy working in the Roman Curia or diplomatic corps where careerism is an even greater concern.^[244]

Canonizations and beatifications

Main articles: List of saints canonized by Pope Francis, List of people beatified by Pope Francis, and List of people declared venerable by Pope Francis

Francis presided over the first canonizations of his pontificate on 12 May 2013 in which he canonized the Martyrs of Otranto— Antonio Primaldo and his 812 companions who had been executed by the Ottomans in 1480^[245]— as well as the religious sisters Laura of St. Catherine of Siena and María Guadalupe García Zavala. In this first canonization, Francis surpassed the record of Pope John Paul II in canonizing the most saints in a pontificate.^[205] Francis approved the equipollent canonization of Angela of Foligno the following 9 October and then the Jesuit Peter Faber on 17 December.^[246][247]

The pope approved further equipollent canonizations on 3 April 2014 for the Jesuit José de Anchieta, as well as the Ursuline nun Marie of the Incarnation and bishop François de Laval.^[248] Francis canonized his two predecessors John XXIII and John Paul II on 27 April 2014 and canonized six additional saints the following 23 November.^[249][250] The pope canonized Joseph Vaz on his visit to Sri Lanka on 14 January 2015 and canonized a further four saints on the following 17 May; he canonized Junípero Serra on 23 September while visiting the United States and then canonized four saints on 18 October including the first married couple to be named as saints.^{[251][252][253][254]} Francis canonized Maria Elisabeth Hesselblad and Stanislaus Papczyński on 5 June 2016 and then canonized Teresa of Calcutta on 4 September; he canonized seven additional saints on 16 October.^{[255][256][257]} The pope canonized the two child visionaries Francisco and Jacinta Marto during his visit to Fátima in mid-2017 and canonized 35 additional saints on 15 October.^[258][259] Francis recognized seven saints, including his predecessor Pope Paul VI and Óscar Romero, on 14 October 2018.^[260] Francis later confirmed the equipollent canonization for Bartholomew of Braga in mid-2019.^[261] On 13 October 2019, Francis canonized five new saints, including Cardinal John Henry Newman.^[262] The pope confirmed the equipollent canonization for Margherita della Metola on 24 April 2021.^[263] On December 18, 2024, he also canonized the Carmelites of Compiègne by equipolence.^[264]

The pope has also continued the practice of having beatifications celebrated in the place of the individual’s origin, although has presided over beatifications himself on three occasions: for Paul Yun Ji-Chung and 123 companions on 16 August 2014, for his predecessor Pope Paul VI on 19 October 2014, and for two Colombian martyrs on 8 September 2017.^{[265][266][267]} The pope has approved beatifications for a range of men and women including the likes of Álvaro del Portillo of Opus Dei (27 September 2014), the martyred archbishop Óscar Romero (23 May 2015), the prominent Polish cardinal Stefan Wyszyński (12 September 2021), and several large groups of Spanish martyrs.^[268]

Francis also confirmed his predecessor John Paul I to be Venerable on 8 November 2017^[269] and Blessed on 4 September 2022.^[270]

Doctors of the Church

Francis declared two new Doctors of the Church: Saint Gregory of Narek as the 36th Doctor of the Church (conferred in 2015 with delegations from the Armenian Catholic Church and the Armenian Apostolic Church present),^[271] and Saint Irenaeus of Lyon as the 37th Doctor of the Church (conferred in 2022).^[272] Francis also conferred upon Irenaeus the supplementary title Doctor unitatis (“Doctor of Unity”).^[272]

Consistories

Main article: Cardinals created by Francis

As of March 2024, Francis had, over the 11 years of his papacy, created 142 cardinals from 70 nations across nine consistories.^[273] He held his first consistory in February 2014, a rare occasion in which he publicly appeared with his predecessor, Benedict XVI.^[274][275] As of early 2023, the cardinals created by Francis, 113 were under the age of 80 and thus eligible to vote for the pope at a papal conclave.^[273] There were, at that point, 94 cardinal-electors created by Francis, 27 created by Benedict XVI, and eight created by John Paul II.^[273]

Francis’s appointments made the College of Cardinals less European-dominated.^[276] Of cardinals appointed by Francis, 22 were based in countries that had never before had a cardinal.^[273] In 2023, Europe accounted for 39% of voting-age cardinals (down from 52% in 2013), and North America accounted for 10% of voting-age cardinals (down from 12% in 2013).^[276] Other regions of the world increased: the Asia–Pacific and Latin America and the Caribbean accounted for 18% of voting-age cardinals (up from 9% and 16%, respectively, in 2013).^[276] Francis appointed many cardinals from developing countries, including some of the world’s poorest, and from countries on the peripheries of the church.^[277] He raised to the cardinalate Chibly Langlois from Haiti and Philippe Nakellentuba Ouedraogo from Burkina Faso (in 2014),^[274] Charles Maung Bo of Myanmar and Soane Patita Paini Mafi of Tonga (in 2015),^[278] Patrick D’Rozario from Bangladesh and Dieudonné Nzapalainga from the Central African Republic (in 2018).^[279] In a 2020 consistory,^[280] the pope appointed the first cardinals from Brunei and Rwanda, as well as the first African American cardinal (Wilton Daniel Gregory), the first Conventual Franciscan in almost 160 years (Mauro Gambetti), and the first cardinal from Siena since 1801 (Augusto Paolo Lojudice).^[281]

Compared to his predecessors, Francis made fewer appointments of Roman Curia officials to the cardinalate. At the 2013 conclave that elected Francis pope, 35% of cardinals were from the Curia; by late 2023, Curia officials made up just under 23% of cardinal-electors.^[277] This was part of a general trend under Francis to a more decentralized church.^[282] Compared to his predecessor Benedict, who preferred to appoint academically inclined churchmen as cardinal, Francis favoured cardinals with a more pastoral focus,^[277] especially those known for a focus on the poor and marginalized, such as refugees and the homeless.^[283] Francis also dropped the traditional custom of always appointing the archbishops of certain historically prominent sees (such as the Patriarch of Venice and Archbishop of Milan) as cardinals.^[277]

Year of Mercy

Main article: Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy

With his April 2015 papal bull of indiction, Misericordiae Vultus (Latin: “The Face of Mercy“), Francis inaugurated a Special Jubilee Year of Mercy to run from 8 December 2015, Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, to the last Sunday before Advent and the Solemnity of the Feast of Christ the King of the Universe on 20 November 2016.

The Holy Doors of the major basilicas of Rome (including the Great Door of St. Peter’s) were opened, and special “Doors of Mercy” were opened at cathedrals and other major churches around the world, where the faithful can earn indulgences by fulfilling the usual conditions of prayer for the pope’s intentions, confession, and detachment from sin, and communion.^[284][285] During Lent of that year, special 24-hour penance services will be celebrated, and during the year, special qualified and experienced priests called “Missionaries of Mercy” will be available in every diocese to forgive even severe, special-case sins normally reserved to the Holy See’s Apostolic Penitentiary.^[286][287]

Francis established the World Day of the Poor in his Apostolic Letter, Misericordia et Misera, issued on 20 November 2016 to celebrate the end of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy.^[288][289]

COVID-19 pandemic

See also: COVID-19 pandemic in Vatican City

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Francis cancelled his regular general audiences at St. Peter’s Square to prevent crowds from gathering and spreading the virus, which seriously affected Italy.^[290] He encouraged priests to visit patients and health workers;^[291] urged the faithful not to forget the poor during the time of crisis;^[292] offered prayers for people with the virus in China;^[293] and invoked the Blessed Virgin Mary under her title Salus Populi Romani, as the Diocese of Rome observed a period of prayer and fasting in recognition of the victims.^[294] The pontiff reacted with displeasure on 13 March 2020, at the news that the Vicar General had closed all churches in the Diocese of Rome. Despite Italy being under a quarantine lockdown, Francis pleaded “not to leave the … people alone” and worked to partially reverse the closures.

On 20 March 2020, Francis asked the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development (DPIHD) to create a Vatican COVID-19 Commission to express the church’s concern for the crisis generated by the COVID-19 pandemic and propose responses to the potential socio-economic challenges deriving from it.^[295][296]

On 27 March, Francis gave an extraordinary benediction Urbi et Orbi.^[297] In his homily on calming the storm in the Gospel of Mark, Francis described the setting: “Dense darkness has thickened on our squares, streets and cities; it looks over our lives filling everything with a deafening silence and a desolate void that paralyzes everything in its passage: you can feel it in the air, you can feel it in your gestures. …In the face of suffering, where the true development of our peoples is measured, we discover and experience the priestly prayer of Jesus: ‘may all be one’.”^[298]

Francis maintains getting COVID vaccination is a moral obligation. Francis stated that people had a responsibility to look after themselves, “and this translates into respect for the health of those around us. Health care is a moral obligation.”^[299]

In response to the economic harm created by the COVID-19 pandemic, Francis stated that now is the time to consider implementing a universal basic wage.^[300]