Pope Francis has died at the age of 88, the Vatican has announced.
Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected to lead the Catholic Church in March 2013 after Pope Benedict XVI stood down.
Vatican statementpublished
Pope Francis died on Easter Monday, 21 April 2025, at the age of 88 at his residence in the Vatican’s Casa Santa Marta building.
Pope Francis was born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on 17 December 1936.
The eldest of five children, his parents had fled their native Italy to escape the evils of fascism.
He enjoyed tango dancing and became a supporter of his local football club, San Lorenzo.
He was lucky to escape with his life after a serious bout of pneumonia, undergoing an operation to remove part of a lung. It would leave him susceptible to infection throughout his life.
As an elderly man he also suffered from pain in his right knee, which he described as a “physical humiliation”.
The young Bergoglio worked as a nightclub bouncer and floor sweeper, before graduating as a chemist.
At a local factory, he worked closely with Esther Ballestrino, who had campaigned against Argentina’s military dictatorship. She was tortured, and her body was never found.
He became a Jesuit, studied philosophy and taught literature and psychology. Ordained a decade later, he won swift promotion, becoming the Catholic Church’s provincial superior for Argentina in 1973.
