The Vatican press office announced that Pope Francis, a popular advocate for Catholic tolerance and regarded as one of the most relevant Argentine figures in world history, passed away at the age of 88 on Easter Monday, April 21. 

Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Francis had been hospitalized for 38 days with a severe respiratory tract infection at the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome on February 14. Since then, he had suffered an asthma crisis as well as kidney failure, according to the Vatican. He passed away at 7:35 a.m. (Rome time), according to a press release from the Vatican.

The first Jesuit pope born outside of Europe, Bergoglio became Francis on March 13, 2013, following Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation on February 28, 2013. The former Archbishop of Buenos Aires quickly became a popular figure worldwide for his reformist approach to some of the Catholic Church’s most conservative aspects. 

Known for his humble lifestyle — he famously rode the subway every morning to the Buenos Aires Cathedral — and his concern for the poor and the disadvantaged, Pope Francis also had an intense international involvement in global politics. He openly denounced climate change and the negative social effects of unbridled contemporary capitalism. 

He also advocated a more progressive approach to the LGBTQ+ community and expanded women’s role within the institution.

“God does not reject anybody,” he said in a documentary where he was interviewed by young people about his positions. “God is father. I do not have the right to throw anyone out of the church, the duty is to always receive.” He also said that people in the Church who incur in hate speech only “take advantage of the church school for their personal passions, for their personal narrow mindedness.”

These views seem to contradict what he said in 2003, when Argentine Congress was debating a bill to legalize gay marriage. In a letter he wrote at the time, Bergoglio, who was a cardinal, said that such legislation was a “destructive attempt to God’s plan.”

For his first trip, the pope chose the island of Lampedusa in Sicily, a nodal point of the European migrant crisis. He made the trip shortly after an overcrowded fishing trawler carrying as many as 750 migrants capsized off the Greek coast leaving dozens dead and hundreds missing. His message in Lampedusa set a tone for his papacy, when he denounced the “globalization of indifference” which “makes us think only of ourselves, makes us insensitive to the cries of other people”. 

Most recently, the pope had been a fervent critic of ultra-right-wing ideas and an active advocate for peace in Ukraine and Gaza. In one of his weekly Angelus prayers in December,  he lamented “children being machine-gunned” in Gaza, as well as the “bombings of schools and hospitals.” “This is cruelty, this is not war,” he said. Pope Francis had a daily call with the Holy Family Catholic Parish in Gaza, run by Argentine rector Gabriel Romanelli, since October 9, 2023, and had continued to do so while in hospital on the days his health allowed it.

The first Argentine pope never got to visit his home country, although he had reportedly planned to several times. His connection and influence in local politics nevertheless remained powerful. Most recently, he welcomed President Javier Milei in Rome and accepted his apologies for derogatory statements he had made in the past. The anarcho-libertarian had called the Pope a “representative of the Evil One on Earth.” Milei had also said that “the pope is a political player who has shown affinity for dictators” and “murderous communists.”

Bergoglio’s actions during the 1976-1983 Argentine dictatorship have also been a matter of controversy. Critics have accused Bergoglio, who was head of the Jesuits in Argentina at the time, of not doing enough to protect two priests of his order, Orlando Virgilio Yorio and Francisco Jálics, who were kidnapped by the military government. 

Others, however, have said that Bergoglio helped those being persecuted. In a 2013 article published by Argentine outlet Infobae, an Uruguayan named Gonzalo Mosca told the story of how, in 1977, Bergoglio helped him escape from Buenos Aires to Misiones and eventually flee to Brazil. At the time, Mosca was being persecuted by not only the Argentine military, but Uruguayan forces as well. In the same story, a Spanish priest named José Caravias detailed how in 1975 the pope tipped him off to the fact that the paramilitary armed group known as the Triple A were searching for him, allowing Caravias to escape.  

In 2010, he was questioned by the judiciary over his involvement in the case of Yorio and Jálics. He detailed his efforts to try and free the two priests, including meeting twice with Navy Commander and Military Junta member Emilio Massera. The priests were tortured and released five months after they were abducted. Neither Yorio nor Jálics accused Bergoglio of being involved in their kidnapping and the judiciary never charged him.  

Pope Francis has been praised by many world leaders for his humanitarian work. Last January, former US President Joe Biden awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction, the highest U.S. civilian honor, highlighting his dedication to the poor and his advocacy for peace. Another former US leader, Barack Obama, praised the pope’s “humility” in his speech welcoming him when he visited Washington in 2015, calling him “a leader whose moral authority comes not just through words but also through deeds.” 

“You shake our conscience from slumber; you call on us to rejoice in Good News, and give us confidence that we can come together in humility and service, and pursue a world that is more loving, more just, and more free,” were Obama’s closing words.

Read in Spanish in Ámbito