Jorge Mario Bergoglio was born Dec. 17, 1936, to Italian immigrants in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the eldest of five children. He was ordained a Jesuit priest in 1969 and led the religious order in Argentina during the country’s murderous dictatorship from 1976-83. He became archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998 and elevated to cardinal in 2001 by St. John Paul II. He was elected the 266th pope on March 13, 2013, on the fifth ballot.
FILE – Pope Francis delivers his blessing as he recites the Angelus noon prayer from the window of his studio overlooking St.Peter’s Square, at the Vatican, Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, file)
FILE – Pope Francis delivers his blessing as he arrives to hold his weekly general audience, in St. Peter’s Square, at the Vatican, Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, File)
FILE – Pope Francis meets migrants during his visit at the Karatepe refugee camp, on the northeastern Aegean island of Lesbos, Greece, Dec. 5, 2021. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, file)
FILE – Pope Francis, left, speaks to migrants, wearing white caps, during his visit to the island of Lampedusa, southern Italy, Monday July 8, 2013. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, Pool, File)
FILE – Pope Francis talks about gays saying he wouldn’t judge priests for their sexual orientation in a remarkably open and wide-ranging news conference aboard the papal flight on the journey back from Brazil, Monday, July 29, 2013. (AP Photo/Luca Zennaro, Pool, file)
FILE – Pope Francis leaves after a meeting with the performers of the living nativity scene of St. Mary Major, in the Pope Paul VI hall at the Vatican, Saturday, Dec. 16, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, File)
FILE – Pope Francis tries to catch his cap as wind blew it away while arriving for his weekly general audience in the St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, Wednesday, March 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, File)
FILE – Pope Francis is flanked by Mons. Guido Marini, right, the Vatican master of liturgical ceremonies, as he leads the Via Crucis – or Way of the Cross – ceremony in St. Peter’s Square empty of the faithful following Italy’s ban on gatherings to contain coronavirus contagion, at the Vatican, Friday, April 10, 2020. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, File)
FILE – Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio leads a mass at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, Feb. 14, 2013. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko, file)
FILE – Pope Francis leaves at the end of his weekly general audience, in St. Peter’s Square, at the Vatican, Wednesday, March 27, 2019. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, file)
FILE – Pope Francis greets faithful after celebrating Mass on the occasion of the Migrant and Refugee World Day, in St. Peter’s Square, at the Vatican, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2019. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, file)
FILE – Pope Francis wears a red scarf as he smiles while leaving St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican after an audience with with Altar boys and girls, on Aug. 4, 2015. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, file)
FILE – Pope Francis receives Cannoli Siciliani (traditional Sicilian pastries) as he meets with faithful of Pilgrimage of the Vocationist Family, at the Vatican, Monday, May 22, 2023. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, File)
FILE – Pope Francis smiles to a nun as he walks in procession on the occasion of the Amazon synod, at the Vatican, Monday, Oct. 7, 2019. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, file)
FILE – An Amazzonian indigenous girl gives Pope Francis a plant during the offertory of a Mass for the closing of Amazon synod in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2019. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, file)
FILE – Pope Francis blesses sick and disabled people at the end of a pro-life Mass in St. Peter’s Square, at the Vatican, Sunday, June 16, 2013. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, File)
FILE – In this April 18, 2018 file photo, Pope Francis meets a group of faithful from China at the end of his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square, at the Vatican. The Vatican on Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2020, answered its critics and justified its decision to pursue an extension of an agreement with China over bishop nominations, acknowledging difficulties but insisting that limited, positive results had been achieved.(AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, file)
FILE – Pope Francis prays at the beginning of the third day of a Vatican’s conference on dealing with sex abuse by priests, at the Vatican, Saturday, Feb. 23, 2019. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, Pool, file)
FILE – Pope Francis speaks during an interview with The Associated Press at The Vatican, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, File )
FILE – Pope Francis arrives to celebrate Mass on Lobito Beach in Iquique, Chile, on Jan. 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, File)
FILE – From left front to camera, Sister Nathalie Becquart, Undersecretary of the Synod of Bishops Luis Marín de San Martín, Synod’s Rapporteur Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, and Synod of Bishops’ Secretary General Cardinal Mario Grech, listen to Pope Francis, right, during the opening session of the 16th General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in the Paul VI Hall at The Vatican, Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, file)
FILE – Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, left, and Cardinal George Pell wait for the arrival of Pope Francis on the occasion of a Mass where the pontiff bestowed the Pallium, a woolen shawl symbolizing their bond to the pope, to new Metropolitan Archbishops, in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, Monday June 29, 2015. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, file)
FILE – Cardinal Raymond Burke applauds during a news conference on the first anniversary of the death of Cardinal Carlo Caffarra, at the Italian Senate, in Rome, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, file)
FILE – Pope Francis, left, stands in front of Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI entering St. Peter’s Basilica accompanied by Monsignor Georg Gaenswein, right with back to camera, at the Vatican, Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2015. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, file)
FILE – Pope Francis holds his weekly general audience in the Paul VI hall, at the Vatican, Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2019. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, file)
FILE – Pope Francis waves as he appears at a window of the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome, Sunday, March 23, 2025, where he has been treated for bronchitis and bilateral pneumonia since Feb. 14. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, File)
FILE – Pope Francis arrives at the end of a mass in St. Peter’s Square at The Vatican, Sunday, April 6, 2025, part of the jubilee of the sick and the health workers. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, File)
FILE – Pope Francis on the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, Wednesday, March 13, 2013. Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, who chose the name of Francis is the 266th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, File)
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FILE – Pope Francis delivers his blessing as he recites the Angelus noon prayer from the window of his studio overlooking St.Peter’s Square, at the Vatican, Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, file)
— The first from the Jesuit order to be elected pope.
— The first to take the name of Francis, after St. Francis of Assisi.
— The first to visit Iraq, meeting its top Shiite Muslim cleric in 2021.
Humility and simplicity
As Buenos Aires archbishop, Francis denied himself the luxuries his predecessors enjoyed, riding the bus, cooking his own meals and regularly visiting slums. This simplicity continued as pope, marked by Francis taking the name of the 13th century saint known for personal simplicity. He lived in the Vatican hotel instead of the Apostolic Palace, wore his old orthotic shoes and not the red loafers of the papacy, and set an example to the clerical classes by using compact cars.
Migrants
Advocating for migrants was one of Francis’ priorities as pope. His’ first trip outside Rome in 2013 was to the Sicilian island of Lampedusa to meet with newly arrived migrants. He denounced the “globalization of indifference” shown to would-be refugees. He prayed for dead migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border in 2016 and brought 12 Syrian Muslims to Rome on his plane after visiting a refugee camp in Lesbos, Greece. His plea for welcome put him at odds with U.S. and European policies. He said in 2016 of then-candidate Donald Trump that anyone building a wall to keep migrants out “is not a Christian.”
LGBTQ+ stance
Early in his papacy, Francis signaled a more welcoming stance toward LGBTQ+ people, declaring “Who am I to judge?” when asked about a gay priest. In a 2023 Associated Press interview, he declared that, “Being homosexual is not a crime,” and later approved blessings for same-sex couples, provided they don’t resemble marriage vows.
Environmental stance
Francis became the first pope to use scientific data in a major teaching document and made care for God’s creation a hallmark of his papacy. In 2015, his environmental manifesto “Praised Be,” urged a cultural revolution to correct what he called the “structurally perverse” global economic system that exploits the poor and turned Earth into “an immense pile of filth.” Many popes before him, though, also called for better care for the environment.
Clergy sexual abuse stance
The greatest scandal of his papacy came in 2018, when he discredited Chilean victims of clergy sexual abuse by siding with a bishop whom they accused of complicity in their abuse. Realizing his error, he invited them to the Vatican and apologized in person. He also brought the entire Chilean bishops conference to Rome, where he pressed them to resign. He convened a summit of the Catholic hierarchy in 2019 on abuse and sent a strong signal by defrocking former U.S. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick after a Vatican investigation determined he abused minors as well as adults. Francis passed church laws abolishing the use of pontifical secrecy and establishing procedures to investigate bishops who abuse or cover up for predator priests. But he was dogged by high-profile cases where he seemed to side with accused clergy.
His critics
In his first years as pope, critics had a living alternative in Pope Benedict XVI, who had resigned and was living on the Vatican grounds. That amplified the right-wing opposition to Francis’ reform agenda. Some called him a heretic after he opened the way in 2016 to letting divorced and civilly remarried Catholics receive Communion. In 2018, the Vatican’s retired U.S. ambassador Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano published an accusation that U.S. and Vatican officials for two decades covered up McCarrick’s sexual misconduct and demanded that Francis resign. After Vigano amplified his criticisms and drew a following of his own, the Vatican in 2024 excommunicated him for schism.
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