Pope Francis has died at the age of 88, a day after public appearances celebrating Easter and weeks after an extended hospital stay.
BBC News Coverage
Three days after white smoke billowed from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel in March 2013, the former archbishop of Buenos Aires greeted the international press inside a cavernous Vatican audience hall. As he rose from a richly upholstered armchair, a pair of well-worn black shoes peeked out from underneath his new papal robes.
The decision by Pope Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, to reject the lavish red slippers of his office was widely interpreted as a small act of rebellion in the tradition-bound Vatican.
The Argentine Jesuit had assumed the mantle of a church dazed by the abdication of Pope Benedict XVI and wounded by revelations of rampant sexual abuse in the priesthood and financial scandal. Now, after the surprise selection of the first non-European pontiff since 741, Francis was demonstrating modestly but unmistakably that he would be a different kind of pope.
Pope Francis died at the age of 88 on April 21, the Vatican announced, ending a historic chapter for the world’s largest Christian faith. (Video: Joshua Carroll/The Washington Post)
Francis, 88, died Monday at 7:35 a.m., the Vatican announced. No cause of death was included in the statement. In February, after a bout with bronchitis, he had been hospitalized in Rome with what Vatican officials called a “complex clinical picture” that included a diagnosis of double pneumonia. Over recent years, he had suffered recurring respiratory infections, undergone colon and abdominal surgery, and experienced increasing mobility problems, requiring the use of a cane and wheelchair.His death came after Francis, ignoring doctors’ orders to convalesce for two months and avoid large crowds, sought to continue his duties, making public appearances and holding private audiences before and during Easter. On Sunday, he met one-on-one with Vice President JD Vance and later funneled through a throng of 35,000 faithful in St. Peter’s Square in the popemobile. His death was announced by a solemn Cardinal Kevin Joseph Farrell, the Irish-born American prelate who serves as the Holy See’s camerlengo, the person who will administratively run the Vatican until the election of a new pope.
“Dearest brothers and sisters, with deep sorrow I must announce the death of our Holy Father Francis,” Farrell said. “His entire life was dedicated to the service of the Lord and His Church. He taught us to live the values of the Gospel with fidelity, courage.”
In Vatican City, regality was always part of the papal mystique. Yet after receiving the nod, Francis personally placed a call to cancel his newspaper subscription back home in Buenos Aires. Previous pontiffs had traveled in the majestic comfort of a black limousine and lived in an opulent 10-room apartment overlooking St. Peter’s Square. Francis hitched rides on a Holy See minibus to his chosen quarters, a boardinghouse plunked behind a gas station. It remained his home.
The complex and highly choreographed funeral for this Pope and conclave to select the new Pontiff will be done according to rules rewritten by Pope Francis himself:
Francis brought an unpretentious style to the church — rejecting elaborate outfits and the ornate papal apartments. His plans kept that up to the end, scaling back some of the funerary pomp and ceremony.
In rewriting the funeral rites in 2024, Francis simplified several elements. Since the 13th century, the bodies of popes have gone on public view, their embalmed bodies placed on a raised pedestal. When John Paul II died in 2005, his body was first brought to the Apostolic Palace within hours for a private viewing for cardinals, bishops and other members of the church hierarchy, as well as prominent Italian officials.
Francis did away with that sort of viewing. Instead, a public viewing will take place directly in St. Peter’s Basilica, where thousands have thronged to pay respects to popes in the past. But his body will remain in the coffin, which will not be on a raised pedestal. “Francis decided to highlight humility over glorification,” said Agostino Paravicini Bagliani, a church historian.
The College of Cardinals decides on the day and hour that the pope’s body will be brought to St. Peter’s Basilica, in a procession led by the camerlengo, and on when the viewing will commence.
The Funeral
The funeral and burial of the pope are supposed to take place four to six days after his death, and funeral rites in various churches in Rome will last nine days.Past popes were put in three nested coffins, one of cypress, one of zinc and one of elm. But as part of Francis’ rule change, he decreed that he would be buried in a single coffin, made of wood and lined in zinc.
The coffin is closed the night before the funeral. The pope’s face is covered by a white silk veil, and he is buried with a bag containing coins minted during his papacy and a canister with a “rogito,” or deed, briefly listing details of his life and papacy. The rogito is read aloud before the coffin is closed.
The new rules also allow for a pope to be buried in a church other than St. Peter’s Basilica. Francis has asked to be buried instead in the Basilica of St. Mary Major, a church dear to him and one he often visited to pray in front of an icon of the Virgin Mary.
The Conclave
Within 15 to 20 days of the pope’s death, the dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, 91, will summon the cardinals to Rome for what is known as a conclave to elect Francis’ successor.The period between the death of a pope and the election of a new one is called the sede vacante, or “the seat is vacant.” During that time, the College of Cardinals keeps general oversight of the church, but it is barred from making any major decisions.
When the cardinals meet, they gather in the Sistine Chapel. All cardinal electors must swear an oath of secrecy and vote by secret ballot. Only cardinals under age 80 are eligible to vote. A two-thirds majority is needed to elect a new pope, and politicking is part of the process.
Cardinals are not allowed to leave the conclave except in rare cases. The word conclave — from the Latin “with key” — refers to the isolation imposed on them, which is meant to keep the electoral process from dragging on.
During the conclave, the cardinals live in Casa Santa Marta, which was built on John Paul II’s orders to replace the improvised rooming arrangements in the papal palace that had previously housed them.
The White Smoke
The cardinals cast repeated votes until a two-thirds majority emerges. After every vote, the ballot papers are burned in a stove, along with an additive that produces a color, and the smoke is released through a chimney that can be seen from St. Peter’s Square, where crowds typically form to watch and wait. If a vote ends without a two-thirds majority, the smoke is black.When a decision is reached, the smoke is white.
My interest in the Pope has for decades been purely nostalgic, and I leave the present club members to debate the question of who ought to get the big hat now. That said, Mr. Bergoglio seemed to be a good and decent man and as good a Pope as someone of my sensibilities could reasonably expect. I’m genuinely sorry that he’s gone.Report
He was nobody’s idea of a leftist; he was also not every Catholic’s idea of a Pope. He tried to call the wider church back to its foundations to minister at the margins, and to respect all the people the church encountered. In that his was a Christ centered papacy. I worry that his successor will walk the church away from those ministries.
May he rest in peace having been welcomed home as a good and faithful servant.Report
I was very much saddened by the news of his passing this morning. Approaching the role as a servant, to the extent one reasonably can, has always struck me as the best face of the Church, and I hope its a path his successor, whoever he may be, is inspired to follow.Report
A much-needed skinny Pope after the previous fat one.
Betting markets for the next Pope are open.
Luis Antonio Tagle and Pietro Parolin are neck and neck.Report
Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed rest in peace.
I appreciate and even admire what I suspect he knew about his final days… his discharge from the hospital wasn’t because he was well, it was because death was immanent (if not known how immanent) and he preferred to die fulfilling his duties. It’s a good death; and ultimately, that’s a gift we can all pray for.
He wasn’t a good Pope, qua Pope; but I do take consolation that he may have addressed deficiencies unknown to me and my life in America; and one of the great things about the Papacy is that it renews every decade or two with a new soul, a new spirit. Eternally spring.Report
As an outsider, both to Catholicism and to Christianity, what I found interesting about Francis was his efforts to address the tensions inside the Church.
The Catholic Church is the largest global religious institution by a wide margin, I think only the Church of England is close, and it’s not very close. As social attitudes have change din Western Europe and North America over the past few decades, there have been increasing tensions between liberal and conservative Catholics. It looked to me like Francis’s approach to this problem was to make conciliatory statements on gender and homosexuality (without changing doctrine in any way) as well as emphasising the more progressive aspects of Catholic teachings. It will be interesting to see if the new Pope takes a similar approach, or tries something else.Report