Jorge Mario Bergoglio died on 21 April 2025, Easter Monday, aged 88. He was the first pope from the Americas and the first Jesuit pope, and he led the Catholic Church for twelve years.
The Vatican announced on the morning of 21 April 2025, Easter Monday, the death of Pope Francis, aged 88, at his residence in the Casa Santa Marta. The day before, on Easter Sunday, he had appeared on the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica for the “urbi et orbi” blessing and had toured the square in the popemobile. He had been recovering for weeks from double pneumonia, for which he spent 38 days in Rome’s Gemelli hospital between February and March. According to the Vatican, he died of a stroke followed by heart failure.
Who he was
Jorge Mario Bergoglio was born in Buenos Aires in 1936, the son of Italian emigrants. A Jesuit, he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires and a cardinal from 2001. He was elected pope on 13 March 2013, after the resignation of Benedict XVI: the first born in the Americas, the first Jesuit and the first to take the name Francis, after St Francis of Assisi.
His papacy emphasised the poor, migrants and care for the environment, with the 2015 encyclical “Laudato si’”, and a more open Church, with reforms of the Curia and of Vatican finances. He also faced the crisis of sexual abuse in the Church, with new rules and criticism of their slowness.
What happened next
The pope’s death opened the period of sede vacante. The ordinary running of the Church passed to the camerlengo, Cardinal Kevin Farrell, and the College of Cardinals. The funeral was held on 26 April in St Peter’s Square, attended by delegations from around the world, and Francis was buried, as he had asked, in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, outside the Vatican.
Cardinals under 80, the only ones entitled to vote, met in conclave in the Sistine Chapel from 7 May to elect his successor by a two-thirds majority.
Why it matters
The Catholic Church has some 1.4 billion members, and the pope is also head of state of Vatican City, with a diplomatic network covering almost the whole world. In Spain, which Francis never visited as pope, his death was followed closely and the government declared three days of official mourning.
With each papacy the tone changes at an institution that speaks to more than a billion people.
This article is general information. It is not legal, tax or investment advice, and it does not take anyone’s particular circumstances into account.
