Pope Francis’ Biography

Pope Francis’ Biography

Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, on 17 December 1936) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until his death until his recent passing today, the 21st of April 2025. He was the first pope from the Society of Jesus (the Jesuit Order), the first from the Americas and the Southern Hemisphere, and the first born or raised outside Europe since the 8th-century Syrian pope Gregory III.

FAMILY, EARLY YEARS AND JOINING THE JESUITS

Pope Francis was the eldest of five children from Mario José Bergoglio and Regina María Sívori. Mario Bergoglio was an Italian immigrant accountant. Regina Sívori was a housewife born in Buenos Aires to a family of northern Italian origin. Mario Bergoglio’s family left Italy in 1929 to escape the fascist rule of Benito Mussolini. According to María Elena Bergoglio, the Pope’s only living sibling, the family did not emigrate for economic reasons. His other siblings were Oscar Adrián, Marta Regina, and Alberto Horacio. His niece, Cristina Bergoglio, is a painter based in Madrid, Spain.

In the sixth grade, Pope Francis (or Jorge Mario Bergoglio) attended Wilfrid Barón de los Santos Ángeles, a school of the Salesians of Don Bosco in Ramos Mejía, Buenos Aires Province. He then attended the technical secondary school Escuela Técnica Industrial Number 27 Hipólito Yrigoyen and graduated with a chemical technician’s diploma. In that capacity, he spent several years working in the food section of Hickethier-Bachmann Laboratory where he worked under Esther Ballestrino. Earlier, he had been a bouncer and a janitor. However, when he was 21 years old, after life-threatening pneumonia and three cysts, Bergoglio had part of a lung excised. Bergoglio was then inspired to join the Jesuits in 1958 after recovering from severe illness.

In joining the Jesuits in 1958, it is recorded that while on his way to celebrate the Spring Day, Bergoglio passed by a church to go to confession and was inspired by a priest. He then studied at the archdiocesan seminary, Inmaculada Concepción Seminary, in Villa Devoto, Buenos Aires, and, after three years, entered the Society of Jesus as a novice on 11 March 1958. Bergoglio had said that, as a young seminarian, he had a crush on a girl and briefly doubted his religious career. As a Jesuit novice, he studied the humanities in Santiago, Chile. After his novitiate, Bergoglio officially became a Jesuit on 12 March 1960 when he made the religious profession of the initial, perpetual vows of poverty, chastity and obedience of a member of the order.

In 1960, Bergoglio obtained a licentiate in philosophy from the Colegio Máximo de San José. He then taught literature and psychology at the Colegio de la Inmaculada Concepción, a high school in Santa Fe, from 1964 to 1965. In 1966, he taught the same courses at the Colegio del Salvador in Buenos Aires.

ORDINATION AS A CATHOLIC PRIEST AND THE PAPACY

Pope Francis was then ordained a Catholic priest in 1969; from 1973 to 1979, he was the Jesuit provincial superior in Argentina. He became the archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998 and was created a cardinal in 2001 by Pope John Paul II.

Following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI on 28 February 2013, a papal conclave elected Bergoglio as his successor on 13 March. He chose Francis as his papal name in honour of Saint Francis of Assisi. Throughout his public life, Francis was noted for his humility, emphasis on God’s mercy, international visibility as pope, concern for the poor, and commitment to interreligious dialogue. He was known for having a less formal approach to the papacy than his predecessors by, for instance, choosing to reside in the Domus Sanctae Marthae (House of St. Martha) guest house rather than in the papal apartments of the Apostolic Palace used by previous popes.

LESS TRADITIONAL POLITICAL ENGAGEMENTS

Pope Francis became notable for less traditional inclinations and policy adoptions, along with a role in international relations. He made women full members of dicasteries in the Roman Curia. He maintained that the Catholic Church should be more sympathetic toward members of the LGBTQ community, and stated that although blessings of same-sex unions are not permitted, the individuals can be blessed as long as blessings are not given in a liturgical context. Pope Francis was also a critic of unbridled capitalism, consumerism, and overdevelopment; he made action on climate change a leading focus of his papacy. In addition, he is widely interpreted as denouncing the death penalty as intrinsically evil, stating that the Catholic Church is committed to its abolition.

Furthermore, in international diplomacy, Francis criticized the rise of right-wing populism, called for the decriminaliSation of homosexuality, helped to restore full diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba, negotiated a deal with China to define how much influence the Communist Party had in appointing Chinese bishops, and supported the cause of refugees. He called protection of migrants a “duty of civilisation” and criticised anti-immigration politics, including those of U.S. President Donald Trump. In 2022, he apologized for the Church’s role in the “cultural genocide” of the Canadian Indigenous peoples.

Pope Francis also convened the Synod on Synodality which was described as the culmination of his papacy and the most important event in the Catholic Church since the Second Vatican Council.

THE DETAILS SURROUNDING POPE FRANCIS’ PASSING

Francis died at the age of 88 in the early morning of 21 April 2025, Easter Monday. In the weeks before his death, he had been treated for chronic lung disease—including a respiratory crisis and pneumonia. He made his last public appearance the day before on Easter Sunday.

His death was announced by Cardinal Kevin Farrell on the Vatican’s TV channel and in a video statement; the exact circumstances of his death are yet to be disclosed.

His death triggers a papal interregnum and a nine-day period of mourning known as the novem-diales (Latin for ‘nine days’). The pope’s funeral, by tradition, takes place within four to six days of the pope’s death; it is expected that he will be buried at the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore according to his wishes. Cardinal-electors will be expected to arrive in Rome to attend the general congregation of cardinals which, in turn, fix the date and time of the upcoming conclave.

Written by Lindokuhle Mabaso

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