The Pope of all the premieres

The announcement was made by Kevin Ferrell, Cardinal very close to Francisco, at the house of Santa Marta. « At 7:35 am this morning, the bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the Father’s house. All his life was devoted to the service of the Lord and his church. »

Pope Francis, who has been leader of the Catholic Church since 2013, had recently been hospitalized for five weeks in a hospital in Rome due to double pneumonia. Fragile health caused for the first time in his papacy not to preside over the Easter ceremonies.

On Sunday, he made a brief appearance to the faithful in the morning, on the porch of St. Peter’s Basilica for the blessing “Urbi et Orbi”, already without oxygen, and received the vice president of the US, Jd Vance, who made a lightning pass through the Vatican, where his entourage took only 17 minutes. The differences between the Pope and the current US administration are well known.

The man without luxuries

Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was chosen to succeed the Bento XVI resignee on March 13, 2013. After a long wait and five votes on the Conclave, the long -awaited white smoke came up. Considered a man without luxuries, of great vocation for evangelization, the Pope asked to be known as Francis, in honor of St. Francis of Assisi.

« You know that the conclave needed a bishop of Rome and it seems that my cardinal brothers had to go almost to the end of the world to find it. But here we are, » he said before St. Peter’s Square.

Francisco starred in a series of premieres during the papacy. It was the first Latin American Pope. It was also the first Jesuit and his election raised great expectations. Changes in the Catholic Church were expected.

Criticism of the excesses of capitalism, it made it clear that it would be the pope of the poor, the marginalized, of the suffering. In Rome, he washed his feet to the migrants, visited the island of Lesbos during the refugee crisis and spoke against the governments that closed the doors to those who fled from war, hunger and misery.

Sexual abuse in the Church Ensombram Legacy

The scandal of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church will have been, perhaps, the darkest episode of Francisco’s papacy. Spunned by news of new cases and coverings, the Pope did not hide. Accused by some of inaction before the controversies, he admitted that the church maintained silence and protected sexual abusive priests. In 2014, while returning from a trip to the Middle East, he spoke of pedophile priests.

« It’s like making a satanic mass, for example. How is this possible? You need to guide it to holiness and instead leads it to a problem that lasts all life? » , he said before the journalists.

Five years later, he raised the pontifical secret for pedophilia cases and ordered the church to fully cooperate with justice.

Homosexual rights

Francisco defended homosexuals and spoke in favor of same-sex civil unions. « They are children of God and are entitled to a family, » he said, reinforcing, however, that marriage can only happen between a man and a woman.

The theme was also addressed in its autobiography,Hope. According to the Pope, « people bless, not relationships, » because « in the church, they are all invited, even divorced people, even homosexual people, even transgender people. »

In addition, Francisco, who even received a group of transsexuals in the Vatican, condemned the laws against homosexuality.

« There are more than 60 countries in the world that criminalize homosexuals and transsexuals, a dozen even with the death penalty, which is sometimes effectively applied, » but « homosexuality is not a crime, it is a human fact and the church and Christians cannot, therefore, remain indolent in the face of this criminal injustice, » he defended.

Although Francisco has supported LGBTQ rights more than any other Pope, he was also caught using derogatory language about homosexuals, arguing that they should not be allowed to enter the priesthood because there was “Frocioggine” in some seminars.

The word “Frocioggine” It can translate into something close to “fag” in Portuguese.

Short Rein for Financial Scandals

Critic of capitalism and unbridled financial exploitation, Francisco wanted to apply the votes of simplicity also to the logistics and functioning of the Vatican.

The pontiff tried to clarify the many obscure areas of the Vatican banking system, affected by successive financial scandals, namely what led to the accusation of ten people, including Cardinal Angelo Becciu, for diversion of funds, fraud and abuse of power in a real estate business in London.

Following various lawsuits against the Vatican, clerics and employees, by alleged fraud, the Argentine Pope has created an ethics committee to supervise the character of financial investments, forcing the Vatican to make an effort to define companies that are considered harmful, namely in sectors such as fossil fuels or armament.

During the papacy, Francis promoted ecumenism and got a historical approach with the Russian Orthodox Church, which was shaken by the beginning of the war in Ukraine. He even censored Cirilo I of Moscow Patriarch by supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine, describing him as the acolyte of Vladimir Putin.

The Catholic Church leader also met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, naming a peacemaker to Ukraine.

Also the crisis in the Middle East was present in the Pope’s mind and in his public interventions. Francisco even received Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the Vatican to discuss the conflict in the region.

Francis will be remembered as the Pope of Canonizations. There were more than 900 during his papacy.

It also takes thousands of kilometers traveled, with visits to Latin America, Southeast Asia, Oceania and several European countries, namely Portugal, to celebrate the World Youth Day in Lisbon in 2024.

Francisco’s fragile health

Since he was elected in 2013, he has been hospitalized several times. Francisco had part of a lung removed when he was young and had recurring bouts of bronchitis, especially in winter.

The 88-year-old also had other health problems: part of the large intestine was removed in 2021, using a wheelchair, cane or wanderer due to damaged knee ligaments and suffered from sciatic nerve pain.

His health had been very delicate for years and his problems forced him to cancel masses and trips, but did not prevent him from choosing 21 new cardinals, increasing the chances of choosing a successor that shared their priorities. Still, he never hid that he was hurt by the loss of faithful, especially significant in his beloved Latin America.