Pope Francis died on Easter Monday at his residence after an extended illness, the Vatican has announced. He was 88. Francis ascended to the Papacy on March 13, 2013, after the unprecedented resignation of Pope Benedict XVI.
Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in 1936 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, he was ordained a priest in the Jesuit order in 1969 and served as the head of that order in Argentina until he was made archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998. He was the first Pope elected from outside of Europe since Gregory III in the eighth century and the first ever Jesuit Pope.
The themes Pope Francis chose for his papacy in his initial statements were humility (he shunned the gold pectoral cross typically worn by the Pope in favor of an iron one) and service to the poor. He selected the name Francis in honor of Saint Francis of Assisi to highlight those themes.
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