Pope Francis, the first pope from the Americas and the first Jesuit pope, led the Catholic Church from 2013 to 2025, stressing mercy, closeness to the poor and the care of creation.
Jorge Mario Bergoglio was born in Buenos Aires on 17 December 1936, the son of Italian immigrants. He trained as a chemical technician before entering the Society of Jesus in 1958, and was ordained priest on 13 December 1969. He served as the Jesuits' provincial superior in Argentina from 1973 to 1979, during the years of military dictatorship, and later as a teacher and spiritual director.
Archbishop of Buenos Aires
He became an auxiliary bishop of Buenos Aires in 1992, its archbishop in 1998 and a cardinal in 2001. He was known for living simply, cooking for himself, taking public transport and spending time in the city's poorest neighbourhoods.
Pope
Elected on 13 March 2013, he took the name Francis, after Francis of Assisi — the first pope to do so. His apostolic exhortation The Joy of the Gospel (Evangelii Gaudium, 2013) called for a missionary church that goes out to the margins. His encyclical Laudato Si' (2015) addressed care for the earth as our common home, and Fratelli Tutti (2020) human fraternity. He proclaimed a Jubilee of Mercy (2015–2016) and began a worldwide consultation of the Church on synodality.
He died on Easter Monday, 21 April 2025, at his residence in the Vatican's Casa Santa Marta, and was buried, at his own wish, in the Basilica of Saint Mary Major in Rome.