Pope Francis, the leading leader of the Catholic Church, dies at the age of 88

Rome Pope Francis, who challenged deep radical standards and made his mission to change the perception of the Catholic Church around the world, died at the age of 88. The Vatican said that Francis died after 7:30 am local time on Monday, a day after Easter.

Francis has faced a number of health issues in recent years, including two Abdomen Surgery operations And a serious several Respiratory infections. Spent Five weeks in hospital In February and March 2025 with bronchitis that developed into pneumonia In each of the lungs. Be distinguished The twelfth anniversary of his door From the hospital room in Rome.

The Pope was pushed into a wheelchair in the room for an interview At his residence in the Vatican With CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell in April 2024. But while he was having difficulty walking, he spoke clearly through Hour conversation About his prayers for the end Wars in Gaza and Ukraine. However, in the most modern manifestations, the ink clearly struggled for breathing while making striped notes.

After his election by his colleagues Catholic Catholics in 2013, Francis put the tone with his first official work, unlike a centuries-old tradition-once he was sought help.

Usually after the new Pope is elected, they come out and bless the masses that gathered in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican. But when Francis was elected, he came out and asked the believers to bless and pray for him.

“I want to ask you well,” he said. “Before the bishop blesses people, I ask you to pray to the Lord to get me.”

It may seem an accurate change, but with his familiar greetings and bid farewell to the crowd in Italian on that day, he put the entire papacy tone. Francis explained that he knew himself as a brother, and not an imperial Kazab. He did not want to continue leading monologue in one direction of the highest position in the Catholic Church, but a dialogue.

As the Pope, the man previously known as Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergolio chose himself after Francis Asisi, the saint of Italy, known for his spread and humanity.

The first Pope of the New World, who was born and raised in Argentina, said that he wanted a “impressive church” and one “that would include” excluded “.

He presented an example of choosing to live in the Chamber 201 in Santa Marta – a small Vatikan Hotel is usually used to visit priests – instead of the luxurious papal apartments used by its predecessors. Francis carried his own bag, and he walked through Rome to buy his wife from glasses.

Send his desire to communicate with the “Popemobiles” anti -storage “Popemobiles” to storage.

“I cannot greet people from inside the sardines box, Francis explained,” Even if it is made of glass. “

It has become one of the most popular public figures in the world, regularly for the lack of sound and leadership leadership – whether by eating with the homeless, washing the feet of guests, or providing a house in Italy for migrants and refugees who flee the war or economic instability.

Francis wandered in consumer and individualism, and insisted that “unrealistic economic structures” were a violation of human rights.

It also prompted progress in combating climate change, until the publication of a publication – an official message from himself to Catholic leaders around the world – on this topic. And the reform of the Korea – the Central Administration of the Church – allowing ordinary men and women to manage the Vatican offices, and the historically allocated situations for the Karrafa and Bishops.

Francis continued to give his public prayers during Corona virus clorts, but with the ban on the crowd, the “Popular Pope” was left to deliver his messages in Saint Peter’s field empty.

Don’t get lost after getting a Covid vaccine, Francis did bold work, first ever Paphagia visit to IraqDespite the enormous security risks. In Mosul, where Pope Francis prayed before they looted the churches, he prayed in it.

After a few months, his health recently occurred. He spent 10 days At Rome Hospital In July 2021, he recovers a scheduled surgery to remove part of the colon. This was the first time that he was transferred to the hospital after the Pope’s name.

In 2022, she was forced to finally torn knee, Francis Slow down. He used a wheelchair and canceled Vatican celebrations and external trips, which generates continuous rumors that Francis, such as Pope Benedict XVI, to resign. when Matt BenedictFrancis Head His funeral, the first time in modern history, the Pope distributed his predecessor to rest.

Over time, the papal of Francis began to define an unimaginable topic: a wave of sexual assault scandals on the Bible that spanned the highest levels of the Catholic Church. He was initially accused of being sensitive in his slow response to the crisis.

Then he tried to control the narration, especially calling senior clerics from all over the world to the Vatican in early 2019. Since that meeting, the new Vatican laws about sexual assault came, and authorizing that every diocese created a clear reports process. Francis also canceled the supreme level of the “papal secret”, which sparked the sexual assault crisis in another layer of systemic secrecy.

His diplomatic skill was offered when Play a major role Restore relations between the United States and its enemy decades, Cuba.

Francis’s simple style was the product of his humble beginnings. He was born in 1936 for an Italian railway worker and a housewife in Buenos Aires, Argentina. When he was young, he lost part of the lung for the infection. He worked in various functions and study of chemistry.

After being appointed as a priest at the end of 32 years old, he visited the poor neighborhoods of Buenos Aires and sponsored a feature of his poor ministry in the city.

During a press conference on one papal journey after years, it seemed to open a homosexual space in the church, in one very symbolic phrase: “Who am I to rule?” Ask When a reporter told him a question about LGBTQ rights.

But although he has received a wide scope to change the church’s tone when it comes to acceptance, the teachings and policy of the church have not changed.

Despite the shooting of Catholic Conservatives for being a very liberal, Francis reaffirmed the long -term doctrines Oppieving marriage of the same sexAnd on everything else from the offspring to Arrangement.

Francis claimed that he only brought a small bag to the Popy in 2013, which he saw his election, because he was expected to return to the house to Argentina.

Instead, his life nor the papal was the same again.