The first pope from the Americas chose the simplest possible name — and spent twelve years trying to live up to it.
An unlikely choice
When Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected in March 2013, he became the first Jesuit pope, the first from Latin America, and the first to take the name Francis, after the saint known for poverty and simplicity rather than any previous pope.
A papacy built on gesture as much as doctrine
He chose to live in the Vatican guesthouse rather than the Apostolic Palace, washed the feet of prisoners and refugees each Holy Week, and repeatedly pushed the Church to focus on the poor, migrants and the environment — most visibly in his 2015 encyclical Laudato Si'.
Death and succession
Pope Francis died on 21 April 2025 at age 88, a day after making a final public appearance on Easter Sunday. The conclave that followed elected Cardinal Robert Prevost, who took the name Leo XIV.
