After twelve years as the Pontiff and head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis has passed away at the age of 88. The pope had nearly passed away weeks earlier but made what seemed to be a nearly miraculous recovery, and insisted on returning to work. The Holy Father made it through Easter before slipping away, relatively unexpectedly:
Standing somberly behind a microphone at the Vatican, Cardinal Kevin Farrell announced the pope’s death. “At 7:35 this morning, the Bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the house of the Father,” he said. An American of Irish origin, Cardinal Farrell becomes the Vatican’s de facto administrator after the death of a pope.
Mourners, some in tears, quickly gathered St. Peter’s Square in Rome, where a day earlier Francis had blessed the faithful a day earlier for Easter.
“We saw him yesterday,” said Marco Volpi, 69. “We did not expect such a tragic ending.”
While the Pontiff clearly still had the effects of his recent illness, Francis did seem to be acclimating himself to a reduced work schedule. American Vice President J.D. Vance had just met with the pope at Easter, in fact, and he had participated in the Easter Mass.
As the Wall Street Journal’s Francis X. Rocca notes in his obituary, Francis was a pope of firsts — and of no small amount of controversy either:
Jorge Mario Bergoglio was a pope of firsts. He was the first pope from the Americas, the first from the Jesuit order, and the first to take the name Francis. He was the first in almost six centuries to become pope after his predecessor resigned. Francis also gave the papacy a less formal and more approachable image by spurning regal attire, riding in compact cars and making headlines with blunt comments at news conferences.
He was openly political, urging grassroots activists around the world to bridge the gap between rich and poor while calling on wealthier countries to better protect the environment. As Western politicians moved to close their borders to refugees, Francis advocated for them and other migrants. In February 2025, he criticized President Trump’s plan for mass deportations.
He maintained a neutral stance on the war in Ukraine, deploring the suffering of Ukrainians but avoiding direct condemnation of Russia and suggesting that the West had provoked the conflict.
Francis’ policy of playing down traditional church teachings on marriage and homosexuality—his most famous single remark was a rhetorical question about gay priests: “Who am I to judge?”—cheered liberals while distressing conservative Catholics, including many bishops in the U.S. But he stopped short of relaxing rules on celibacy for Roman Catholic priests, disappointing progressive bishops in Latin America and elsewhere who argued that it would remedy shortages of clergy.
Francis endorsed zero tolerance for priests who sexually abuse children, but victims and their supporters said he didn’t do enough to tackle the problem. In the biggest scandal of his pontificate, a former Vatican diplomat publicly accused him of turning a blind eye to sexual misconduct by a U.S. cardinal and called on him to resign.
Having reported from the conclave that elected then-Cardinal Bergoglio, I can attest to the sense of history that attended all of those firsts. I recall especially the reaction of the Argentine journalists in the press annex when the name got announced, and the general sense of optimism that resulted after the bewilderment that came from Pope Benedict XVI’s surprise retirement. Pope Francis’ first moves to shed some of the pomp and ceremony in favor of a more pastoral approach generated even more enthusiasm.
However, that began to fade when Francis’ “openly political” approach began to emerge, as my friend Frank Rocca writes above. Some of that was overblown; as I often wrote, the worst words to start off a Catholic journalist’s day was a news report that began “Pope Francis said today,” as it nearly always would be followed by something he hadn’t actually said. The experience at the 2014 Synod on the Family was an Orwellian peek at this kind of misreporting (which I also covered from the Vatican press office).
Often enough, though, Francis’ actual statements and writings generated considerable and legitimate controversy. That was especially true in the US, where the pope’s observations on US policies confounded friends and opponents alike. Immigration policies were only one aspect of this; conservatives demanded more support for the fight against abortion, and liberals expected Francis to rewrite doctrine on ordination of women, divorce and remarriage, and especially on LGBTQ demands.
All of those issues await the next pope, too. The cardinals will begin preparing the next conclave, which should take place in the next couple of weeks; the first order of business will be the funeral for Pope Francis. Until then, the Vatican will be run by administrators until the conclave elects the next pope. The interregnum is called Sede Vacante, the Vacant Seat, and the Vatican has two millennia of experience at these transitions.
The real question facing the cardinals will be whether to continue on Francis’ pastoral-reform path, or to tack back to the John Paul II/Benedict XVI focus on doctrinal discipline. Francis appointed about half of the current College of Cardinals, which will be an interesting factor to watch during the conclave. So too will be the increasing influence of African bishops, where martyrdom is real and literal at the moment, and where more conservative bishops and cardinals are emerging.
In the meantime, I hope you will join me in prayer for Pope Francis, the Holy See, its administrators, and the cardinals who will chart the course for the Catholic Church. Requiescat in pace, and may flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.
Addendum: Edward Pentin called him “a man of the people” in his interview on Newsmax. This is a pretty fair assessment of the currents that may emerge in this conclave.
Update: Cardinal Dolan offered a few remarks in New York this morning as well. This is more of a homily than a statement, but it’s worth watching for Dolan’s wisdom and passion.
