Pope Francis waves at the end of the Palm Sunday Mass at Saint Peter’s Square at the Vatican, March 20, 2016. PHOTO/REUTERS
When Jorge Mario Bergoglio, born on December 17, 1936, was elected Pope in March 2013, he ushered in a pontificate marked by unprecedented milestones. Taking the name Francis, he embarked on a transformative journey that would redefine the papacy and crown 12 remarkable years of leadership in the Catholic Church.
Pope Francis became the first Jesuit Pope, the first from Latin America, and the first non-European Pope in more than 1,200 years. He was also the first to take the name Francis, after St Francis of Assisi, symbolising a papacy focused on humility, peace, and care for the poor. Notably, he was the first Pope to be elected while his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, was still alive, and the first to reside outside the traditional Apostolic Palace, choosing instead to live in the modest Vatican guesthouse, Casa Santa Marta.
Known for his advocacy of peace and interfaith dialogue, Pope Francis consistently spoke out against the arms trade and championed multilateralism. He made it a personal mission to reach out to other faiths, especially Islam, fostering dialogue in ways no Pope had previously attempted. His travels reflected this commitment.
Pope Francis visited corners of the globe untouched by any previous Pope, from the war-scarred streets of Iraq to the remote islands of the Pacific. In doing so, he set numerous records, not least of which was becoming the oldest Pope to undertake such extensive international journeys, still travelling abroad even just months before his 88th birthday.
Reforming the Church from within
Following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, Francis inherited a Church reeling from decades of sexual abuse scandals. He responded by launching deep reforms. He established a Council of Cardinals to advise on church governance, a first in the Church’s history, and tackled financial corruption in the Vatican Bank and Curia. Francis broke new ground in promoting inclusivity within Church structures.
He appointed women and laypeople to senior positions in the Roman Curia, including the first female governor of Vatican City and the first layperson to head the Vatican’s communications office. He also initiated a Synod process prepared through global consultation with the laity—a move seen as unprecedented in its scope. In a historic move, he abolished pontifical secrecy in cases of sexual abuse, lifting a veil of silence that had long shielded the Church from scrutiny.
His efforts, though met with resistance, were relentless. Two members of his commission for protecting minors resigned in protest at the slow pace of reform. But Francis pressed on, holding a 2019 Vatican summit where survivors shared testimonies, and he promised an “all-out battle” against clerical abuse. He stripped prominent figures, including Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, of their positions following abuse allegations—actions few Popes before him had dared take.
A voice for the voiceless
Pope Francis frequently used his moral authority to address pressing global crises. He made more than 47 international trips and visited countries mired in conflict or recovering from disaster. In 2021, amid the Covid-19 pandemic and despite security risks, he visited Iraq—becoming the first Pope to do so. He travelled to Baghdad, Ur, Erbil, Mosul, and Qaraqosh, encountering cities still bearing the wounds of war and terror. “It was the most beautiful journey,” he later remarked, referring to his emotional pilgrimage to the land of Abraham, where he met Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, a leading Shia cleric, in an encounter seen as historic for Christian-Muslim relations.
Earlier, in 2015, he had made a bold trip to the Central African Republic at the height of conflict. There, he opened the Holy Door of the Jubilee of Mercy—not in Rome, as tradition dictated—but in a war-torn nation, marking the first time a Holy Year was inaugurated outside the Vatican. In 2023, he visited the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan, where he was joined by the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury and the Moderator of the Church of Scotland in a rare ecumenical mission for peace.
“Ending war,” Vatican officials would later note, “was one of Pope Francis’s most urgent and persistent concerns.” Throughout his papacy, he regularly called for days of prayer and fasting for countries in crisis, including Syria, Lebanon, South Sudan, and Afghanistan. As war returned to Gaza and the broader Middle East in 2024, he lamented: “I never thought I would be a Pope during a time of war.”
Championing human fraternity
In 2019, Pope Francis took an extraordinary step toward interfaith unity by signing the Document on Human Fraternity in Abu Dhabi with the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmed al-Tayeb. It was the first time a Pope co-signed such a declaration with a leading Islamic authority. The document is now a cornerstone of Christian-Muslim dialogue and is referenced in global interfaith initiatives. He later built upon this legacy in his Encyclical Fratelli Tutti, a sweeping call for global solidarity and universal fraternity.
It joined three other Encyclical Letters: Lumen Fidei (on faith), Laudato si (on the environment), and Dilexit Nos (on divine and human love), each contributing to a broader vision of a more compassionate and just world. His 2023 Apostolic Exhortation C’est la Confiance, marked the 150th anniversary of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux’s birth and underscored the need for radical trust in God. His other exhortations addressed youth, the Amazon region, the family, and the universal call to holiness (Gaudete et Exsultate).
