Pope Francis has died today, aged 88.
Pope Francis’s health had been steadily declining in recent months. He had suffered persistent breathing problems through the winter and was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital on February 14 for bronchitis but was then diagnosed with double pneumonia in what was first described as a “complex” then a “critical” medical scenario. He suffered a number of respiratory crises and failures and presented with symptoms of “mild” kidney failure during his hospitalization. Discharged back to the Vatican after 38-days, Francis began a 2-month convalescence as his doctors revealed he nearly lost his life twice in the spring hospitalization.
He was last in public on Easter Sunday to give the Urbi et Orbi blessing, but looked notably weak, being barely able to raise his arms and with a particularly strained voice.
The Argentinian prelate had led the Catholic Church as Pope since March 13, 2013. He emerged to the world as a surprise successor to Benedict XVI, following the German Pope’s shock resignation in February 2013.
Jorge Mario Bergoglio was ordained on December 13, 1969 and was raised to become Auxiliary Bishop of Buenos Aires in May 1992, before assuming control of the see in 1998. Created cardinal by Pope John Paul II in February 2001, he served as the vice-president and then president of the episcopal conference of Argentina from 2002 – 2011.
In the papal conclave following Benedict XVI’s resignation, Cardinal Bergoglio was elected to the Papal throne on March 13, 2013, at the age of 76.
Styled as the “pope of confusion” by commentators, his reign was marked by a rapid diversion from Catholic teaching on numerous issues, with his pronouncements and writings leading to widespread confusion amongst Catholics on topics such as LGBT issues, divorce and “re-marriage,” nature of the priesthood, role of the laity in ecclesial governance, adherence to Tradition, and the permissibility of the traditional Latin Mass.
Indeed, the issues arising from his pontificate do not end here, since they also include the gutting of the Pontifical Academy for Life and re-filling it with supporters of abortion; the championing of “climate change” and globalist policies; the promotion of taking abortion-tainted COVID-19 injections as a moral duty; pushing an irreligious concept of “human fraternity” which was widely accused of rejecting God and subsequently welcomed by Muslims and Freemasons; being involved in the reported cover-up of a number of high-profile abuse cases, such as Father Marko Ivan Rupnik, Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta, ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick; remaking the Vatican curia with individuals noted for their rejection of Catholic teaching on numerous points.
Announced as the 266th Pope of the Catholic Church on March 13, 2013, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected on just the second day of the conclave. Many have argued that his election was a result of a longstanding and coordinated plan by the secretive St. Gallen group or mafia. (More details on his election are provided further below in this obituary).
Citing concern for the poor as his reason, Bergoglio chose the new papal name of Francis in imitation of St. Francis of Assisi, though he had in fact not visited Assisi at that point. Addressing the crowds in St. Peter’s Square on the evening of his ascent to the throne, Francis avoided using the term “Pope,” presenting himself instead as “bishop” of Rome. “You know that it was the duty of the Conclave to give Rome a Bishop. It seems that my brother Cardinals have gone to the ends of the earth to get one… but here we are… I thank you for your welcome. The diocesan community of Rome now has its Bishop.”
His appearance on the balcony of St. Peter’s was notable for is departure from tradition: gone were the Pope’s red shoes which symbolized martyrdom; gone were the Papal pectoral cross and ring, with Bergoglio choosing his own instead; gone also was the traditional red mozzetta.
He also dispensed with the usual order of a papal blessing, asking the assembled crowd to pray for him, before imparting a blessing.
The evening was a revelatory one, with many commentators already remarking on the new Pope’s disregard for customs.
He created over 140 cardinals in nine consistories through his reign, and issued well over 3,500 documents, texts or speeches. Among this number were 4 Encyclicals: Lumen Fidei, largely written by Pope Benedict and finished by Francis; Fratelli Tutti, which expounded a form of irreligious fraternity dubbed as “blasphemous”; Laudato Si’, which advocated for “climate change” measures and formed the basis for his future ecological writings and interventions; Dilexit Nos, on the Sacred Heart.
Pope Francis also penned 74 Motu Proprios, 92 Apostolic Letters, 7 Apostolic Exhortations, 20 Apostolic Constitutions, and one Papal Bull. Francis made over 40 official papal trips outside of Italy and visited 65 countries as of September 12, 2024.
One of the most notable and impactful aspects of Francis’ tumultuous pontificate is his attack on the Church’s traditional Mass, which was affected over a number of years. His July 16, 2021, motu proprio Traditionis Custodes abrogated Pope Benedict’s 2007 Summorum Pontificum, declaring that the liturgy of Pope Paul VI, or the Novus Ordo, is the “unique expression of the lex orandi of the Roman Rite.”
The immediate fallout of the text saw closure of traditional Masses in various locations around the world. It was supposedly born out of a survey by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), which claimed devotees of the traditional Mass fostered “disagreements,” ruptures in the Church, and the “peril of division.”
However, the implementation of the restrictions was not swift or widespread enough, prompting Francis’ perfect of the Congregation for Divine Worship (Cardinal Arthur Roche) to issues increased restrictions in December 2021, followed by yet more restrictions in February 2023. The results of the CDF’s survey were never published, and are believed never to have been seen by Roche’s dicastery implementing the restrictions.
Canonists have argued that Traditionis Custodes itself was not canonically legal, and prelates such as Cardinals Raymond Burke, Robert Sarah and Bishop Athanasius Schneider repeatedly spoke out against the papal moves. Schneider has stated that to comply with the restrictions would be a “false obedience,” Sarah decried them as “diabolical,” and Burke styled them as being a “persecution.”
By virtue of these various documents against the traditional Mass, Francis thus ordered traditional Masses out of parish churches, forbade newly ordained priests from automatically being able to say the traditional Mass, limited the number of priests already with that permission, restricted the use of the traditional sacraments, and removed diocesan bishops’ powers to exempt their priests from the papal restrictions.
In addition to this, the Pontiff repeatedly took aim at devotees of Tradition, describing them as “rigid” and highlighting this as a problem related to “clericalism.” In one such characteristic discussion, Francis argued that devotion to the traditional Mass was a “nostalgic disease” resulting in “indietrism.”
In a quasi-autobiographical book published in January 2025, Francis also accused Catholics who attend the traditional liturgy of having a “mental imbalance, emotional deviation, behavioral difficulties, a personal problem that may be exploited.”
Indeed, further restrictions on the traditional Mass had been rumored to be enacted over the summer of 2024, with Francis reportedly having the document on his desk ready to sign. But following an outpouring of public support from groups and individuals, the rumored text never emerged.
On December 18, 2023, the Vatican published the Declaration Fiducia Supplicans, which contained approval for “blessings for couples in irregular situations and for couples of the same sex.” Written by CDF prefect Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, and approved by Pope Francis, the document caused instant and widespread consternation throughout the global Church.
The Declaration argued that offering blessings to same-sex couples did not change the teaching on marriage, or validate the “status” of such relationships. It came in apparent contradiction to the CDF’s 2021 note which ruled out the possibility of blessings “unions of persons of the same-sex,” stated that blessings could be provided to individuals who came alone, seeking a blessing.
Fiducia Supplicans was swiftly welcomed by LGBT advocates and heterodox clerics, while vocal opposition was found predominantly in Africa along with a steadily growing number of dioceses in the U.S., Europe, the UK, and amongst religious orders.
Notable prelates – Cdls. Müller and Zen and Sarah, Abp. Viganò, Bp. Schneider – all penned their rejection of the document’s proposal for same-sex blessings, many doing so repeatedly. Sarah went so far as to state that Fiducia Supplicans proposes a “heresy that gravely undermines the Church, the Body of Christ, because it is contrary to the Catholic faith and tradition.”
Francis and Fernández defended the document strenuously from critics, with Francis arguing that “those who vehemently protest [Fiducia Supplicans] belong to small ideological groups.”
In one March 2024 interview which exemplified the rationale often used by the Pope, Francis stated that “I do not bless a ‘homosexual marriage,’ I bless two people who love each other and I also ask them to pray for me.”
Fiducia Supplicans’ publication arguably caused one of, if not the greatest, tumult in the Francis pontificate up until that time, with the global backlash against the text on a scale previously unseen in the prior 11 years of Francis’ reign.
The late Pope’s record on homosexuality and apparent promotion of it, is of proportions previously unseen by the Vatican. He was repeatedly praised by LGBT activists for regular comments appearing to break with Church teaching opposing homosexuality and gender ideology.
This record infamously began with his 2013 in-flight comments “who am I to judge” when asked about the existence of a gay lobby within the Vatican and the practice of homosexuality. Such support took a marked increase in the wake of the CDF’s March 2021 responsum condemning same-sex “blessings,” as Pope Francis made numerous public statements praising and supporting advocates of LGBT ideology and same-sex civil unions.
Numerous times he appeared to suggest that homosexuals could present themselves for Holy Communion, though without stating so explicitly. Such statements often took the form of the Pope refusing to answer specific questions with the relevant aspect of Catholic teaching on chastity or the immoral nature of homosexual actions. Notably, when speaking with Portuguese Jesuits in August 2023, he appeared to suggest that homosexual should not be encouraged to practice chastity if “they are not yet mature, or are not capable.”
The Pope also argued strongly against anti-sodomy laws – in contradiction to the teaching of saints and Church Fathers – saying that criminalizing homosexuality is “unjust.” He criticized bishops who supported anti-sodomy laws, calling for them to “undergo a process of change to recognize the dignity of everyone.”
As part of his LGBT advocacy, he repeatedly welcomed prominent LGBT activists at the Vatican, such as Fr. James Martin S.J., along with transgender individuals and groups. He also allegedly told dissident U.S. activist and professor Aaron Bianco, who is in a same-sex “marriage,” to continue his efforts to make the Church more open to homosexual unions.
A duo of pro-LGBT advocates – Sr. Jeannine Gramick and the openly homosexual Juan-Carlos Cruz – respectively claimed that Francis wasn’t aware of the text of the CDF’s 2021 note prohibiting same-sex blessings and that he subsequently fired the officials responsible for the text. {This CDF text was of course contradicted by Fiducia Supplicans in 2024} Cruz himself attested that Francis told him that “God made you gay;” Cruz was brought by Francis to join the Vatican’s Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.
Due to his policy of public inaction against bishops repudiating Catholic teaching on homosexuality, bishops in both Belgium and Germany approved plans and documents for same-sex blessings, despite the church’s prohibition of such. Prior to FiduciaSupplicans’ publication, Belgium’s Bishop Johan Bonny claimed on a number of occasions to have the Pope’s personal approval for the Belgian bishops’ same-sex “blessings,” a statement which supported the German bishops’ approval of same-sex blessings in March 2023.
Such was Francis’ record on LGBT issues, that the CEO of one of the most influential pro-LGBT pressure groups in the U.S. – GLADD, which describes itself as “the world’s largest Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) media advocacy organization” – praised him for his actions, during the 2025 World Economic Forum’s Davos meeting.
The emergence of the Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia in April 2016 was a seminal moment for the Catholic Church, due to the text’s promotion of Holy Communion for the divorced and ‘re-married.’
In the brief lines of the infamous footnote 351 in Chapter 8, Pope argued for the “integration” of those in “irregular unions” into the life of the Church. In the footnote, he stated that this “integration” can, “in certain cases,” involve admittance to the sacraments, including the Eucharist.
Fielding questions on the text, he answered by saying there is “no other interpretation” of Amoris Laetitiaexcept the one provided by the bishops of Buenos Aires allowing Communion for the divorced and remarried.
The Pope was also asked during an in-flight press conference if the text contained a “change in discipline that governs access to the sacraments” for Catholics who are divorced and “re-married,” Francis replied, “I can say yes, period.”
The document served as a catalyst for many Catholics – clerical and lay – who had hitherto been trying to interpret Francis’ increasingly obvious heterodoxy in line with Tradition. Within months, a group of Catholic scholars issued a letter to all the cardinals and patriarchs, warning that Amoris Laetitia contained “dangers to the faith” and appealing for a correction.
Then on November 14, 2016 four cardinals publicly released a letter, the Dubia, which they had privately sent to the Pope on September 19 but had gone unanswered. The four signatories – Cardinals Walter Brandmüller, Raymond Burke, Carlo Caffarra, and Joachim Meisner – issued the Dubia only ten days after Francis’ comments to the Buenos Aires bishops – an interpretation of Amoris Laetitia which Brandmüller had previously warned would be heretical.
Their Dubia consisted of five questions each requiring a simple answer of “yes” or “no,” and positing Amoris Laetitia in juxtaposition with Catholic Tradition.
The letter was never officially answered, with Caffarra and Meisner dying some years before Francis.
However, responding to a Dubia from Cardinal Dominik Duka O.P. on the same issue in 2023, the CDF provided an answer to the 2016 Dubia. Duka asked whether Pope Francis’ response to the Bishops of Buenos Aires – when the Pope stated there was “no other interpretation” of Amoris Laetitiaexcept the one provided by the bishops of Buenos Aires in allowing Communion for the divorced and “re-married” – can be considered “a statement of the ordinary Magisterium of the Church.” Fernández wrote that since Pope Francis’ words were published in the Vatican’s official compilation of documents, the Acta Apostolicae Sedes, they were “authentic Magisterium.”
Pope Francis also refused to issue Catholic teaching on the prohibition of Holy Communion for politicians complicit in promoting abortion. He regularly argued “Communion is not a prize for the perfect,” that clergy should not “go condemning” pro-abortion politicians, and that he has never refused Communion to anyone.
Then in October 2021, Francis made waves when he reportedly told the radically pro-abortion U.S. President Joe Biden to “keep receiving Communion,” calling Biden “a good Catholic.”
Some months later, at a Papal Mass, Nancy Pelosi was permitted to receive Communion, despite having only recently been banned by her local bishop {Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone} due to her support for abortion.
Francis’ 2022 Apostolic Letter Desiderio desideravi, in which he reaffirmed his restrictions on the Latin Mass, also contained his argument that Communion was to be offered to all, leaving out the “essential topic of repentance for sin for the worthy reception of the Eucharist.” This prompted a group of prominent bishops, priests and lay scholars to write a statement warning that Francis’ claim of “garment of faith” as the only requirement for the reception of Holy Communion, “contradicts the faith of the Catholic Church.” Their statement went unanswered by the Vatican.
During the 2019 Synod on the Amazon held at the Vatican, Catholics were shocked when pagan idols were afforded center stage in an idolatrous ceremony. One of the offerings made to the idols was later placed on the altar inside St. Peter’s Basilica.
On Friday, October 4, Pope Francis took part in the “highly symbolic tree-planting ceremony” in the Vatican Gardens, during which an Amazonian group prostrated themselves before a number of carvings, including two nearly identical wooden Pachamama statues depicting a naked, pregnant woman. Pope Francis was offered a statue of the image, which he blessed; he then set aside his prepared speech at the event, and instead simply recited an Our Father.
The Pachamama is a pagan goddess of the “figure of life,” an Incan fertility goddess, and is revered among Indigenous groups.
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