Pope Francis facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Pope Francis |
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| Bishop of Rome | |
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Francis in 2021
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| Church | Catholic Church |
| Papacy began | 13 March 2013 |
| Papacy ended | 21 April 2025 |
| Predecessor | Benedict XVI |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | 13 December 1969 |
| Consecration | 27 June 1992 by Antonio Quarracino |
| Created Cardinal | 21 February 2001 |
| Personal details | |
| Birth name | Jorge Mario Bergoglio |
| Born | 17 December 1936 Buenos Aires, Argentina |
| Died | 21 April 2025 (aged 88) Casa Santa Marta, Vatican City |
| Denomination | Catholic |
| Residence | Casa Santa Marta, Vatican City |
| Previous post |
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| Education |
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| Motto | Miserando atque eligendo |
| Signature |  |
| Coat of arms |  |
Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until his death on Easter Monday, 21 April 2025. He was the first pope from the Society of Jesus (the Jesuit Order), the first from the Americas and the Southern Hemisphere, and the first born or raised outside Europe since the 8th-century Syrian pope Gregory III.
Contents
Early years
Pope Francis was born as Jorge Mario Bergoglio on 17 December 1936 in Flores, a neighborhood of Buenos Aires. He was the eldest of five children of Mario José Bergoglio (1908–1959) and Regina María Sívori (1911–1981). Mario Bergoglio was an Italian immigrant accountant born in Portacomaro (Province of Asti) in Italy's Piedmont region. Regina Sívori was a housewife born in Buenos Aires to a family of northern Italian (Piedmontese-Genoese) origin. Mario José's family left Italy in 1929 to escape the fascist rule of Benito Mussolini. According to María Elena Bergoglio (born 1948), the pope's only living sibling, they did not emigrate for economic reasons. His other siblings were Oscar Adrián (1938–deceased), Marta Regina (1940–2007), and Alberto Horacio (1942–2010). Two great-nephews, Antonio and Joseph, died in a traffic collision. His niece, Cristina Bergoglio, is a painter based in Madrid, Spain.
In the sixth grade, Bergoglio attended Wilfrid Barón de los Santos Ángeles, a school of the Salesians of Don Bosco, in Ramos Mejía, Buenos Aires Province. He attended the technical secondary school Escuela Técnica Industrial N° 27 Hipólito Yrigoyen, named after a past Argentine president, and graduated with a chemical technician's diploma In that capacity, he spent several years working in the food section of Hickethier-Bachmann Laboratory, where he worked under Esther Ballestrino. Earlier, he was a bouncer and a janitor.
When he was 21 years old, after life-threatening pneumonia and three cysts, Bergoglio had part of a lung excised.
Early career (1958–2013)
Bergoglio joined the Jesuits in 1958. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1969, and from 1973 to 1979 was the Jesuit provincial superior in Argentina. He became the Archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998 and was created a cardinal in 2001 by Pope John Paul II. He led the Argentine Church during the December 2001 riots in Argentina.
Papacy (2013–2025)
Francis was the first Jesuit pope. Many media reported him as being the first non-European pope, but he was the 11th; the previous was Gregory III from Syria who died in 741. Although Francis was not born in Europe, he was ethnically European; his father and maternal grandparents were from northern Italy.
As pope, Francis's manner was less formal than that of his immediate predecessors. On the night of his election, he took a bus back to his hotel with the cardinals rather than being driven in the papal car. The next day, he visited Cardinal Jorge María Mejía in the hospital and chatted with patients and staff.
In addition to his native Spanish, he spoke fluent Italian (the official language of Vatican City and the "everyday language" of the Holy See) and German. He was also conversant in Latin (the official language of the Holy See), French, Portuguese, and English; he also understood Piedmontese and some Genoese Ligurian.
Francis chose not to live in the official papal residence in the Apostolic Palace but instead remained in the Vatican guest house in a suite in which he could receive visitors and hold meetings. He was the first pope since Pope Pius X to live outside the papal apartments.
On 14 February 2025, Francis entered Gemelli Hospital in Rome due to bronchitis. His hospital stay was extended due to a polymicrobial infection of his respiratory tract and bilateral pneumonia. On 3 March, it was reported that he had been removed from mechanical ventilation and was recovering.
On 19 March, it was reported that Francis was no longer using mechanical ventilation at night, with his doctors stating that his lung infection was under control, although not eliminated. He was discharged from hospital 23 March, immediately after blessing a crowd from his balcony; he was expected to spend at least two months recuperating at his home in Domus Sanctae Marthae in Vatican City, maintaining a reduced work schedule. He appeared in public for the first time since the hospitalization on 6 April.
Death
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Francis died at the age of 88 on Easter Monday, 21 April 2025, at 07:35 CEST (UTC+02:00) in his residence in Domus Sanctae Marthae. His death was announced by Cardinal Kevin Farrell on the Vatican's TV channel and in a video statement; the exact circumstances of his death are yet to be disclosed.
The pope's death begins a papal interregnum and a nine-day period of mourning known as the novemdiales (Latin for 'nine days'). His funeral will take place on 26 April 2025.
Name
At his first audience on 16 March 2013, Francis told journalists that he had chosen the name in honor of Saint Francis of Assisi, and had done so because he was especially concerned for the well-being of the poor. He explained that, as it was becoming clear during the conclave voting that he would be elected the new bishop of Rome, the Brazilian Cardinal Cláudio Hummes had embraced him and whispered, "Don't forget the poor", which had made Bergoglio think of the saint. Bergoglio had previously expressed his admiration for St. Francis, explaining that: "He brought to Christianity an idea of poverty against the luxury, pride, vanity of the civil and ecclesiastical powers of the time. He changed history."
This is the first time that a pope has been named Francis. On the day of his election, the Vatican clarified that his official papal name was "Francis", not "Francis I", i.e. no regnal number was used for him.
Theological emphases and teachings
Death penalty
Francis committed the Catholic Church to the worldwide abolition of the death penalty in any circumstance. In 2018, Francis revised the Catechism of the Catholic Church to read that "in the light of the Gospel" the death penalty is "inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person" and that the Catholic Church "works with determination for its abolition worldwide."
Role of women
On 11 January 2021, Francis allowed bishops to institute women to the ministries of acolyte and lector. While these instituted ministries were previously reserved to men, Catholic women already carry out these duties without institution in most of the world. Francis wrote that these ministries are fundamentally distinct from those reserved to ordained clergy. In 2023, Francis initiated dialogue on the possibility of female priests and deaconesses. In an interview for a book released in Italy the same year, Francis stated that "holy orders is reserved for men" but that "the fact that the woman does not access ministerial life is not a deprivation, because her place is much more important".
In February 2021, Francis announced back-to-back appointments of women to take positions that were only held by men in the past. He appointed France's member of the Xaviere Missionary Sisters, Nathalie Becquart as the first co-undersecretary of the Synod of Bishops. Besides, an Italian magistrate, Catia Summaria also became the first woman Promoter of Justice in the Vatican's Court of Appeals.
On 26 April 2023, Francis announced that 35 women would be allowed to vote at the Sixteenth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops (making up "just over 10 percent" of all voters), marking the first time women are allowed to vote at any Catholic Synod of Bishops.
International diplomatic role
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Francis played a key role in the talks toward restoring full diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba.
On 24 May 2017, Francis met with U.S. President Donald Trump in Vatican City, where they discussed the contributions of Catholics to the United States and to the world. They discussed issues of mutual concern, including how religious communities can combat human suffering in crisis regions, such as Syria, Libya, and ISIS-controlled territory.
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Francis supported the cause of refugees during the European and Central American migrant crises, calling on the Western World to significantly increase immigration levels. In 2022, he apologized for the Church's role in the "cultural genocide" of the Canadian indigenous peoples. On 4 October 2023, Francis convened the beginnings of the Synod on Synodality, described as the culmination of his papacy and the most important event in the Catholic Church since the Second Vatican Council.
Distinctions
Titles and styles
The official form of address of the pope in English was His Holiness Pope Francis; in Latin, Franciscus, Episcopus Romae. Holy Father is among the other honorifics used for popes.
Foreign orders
Bolivia: 
: Grand Collar of the Order of the Condor of the Andes (9 July 2015)- Bolivia: Order of Merit "Father Luis Espinal Camps" (9 July 2015)
Poland: 
: Order of the Smile (26 April 2016)
Awards
Germany: International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen 2016.- "Person of the Year" by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (2015) for his request that all Catholics be kind to animals.
- Was made an honorary Harlem Globetrotter on 7 May 2015.
- Zayed Award for Human Fraternity in October 2020 for significant contributions to the service of humanity from around the world.
Brazil: Francis was awarded the Medalha Mérito Legislativo by the Congress of Brazil in November 2021.- Grand Chief Willie Littlechild gifted Pope Francis with the Indigenous Name Wapikihew (White Eagle) on behalf of the Ermineskin Cree Nation and presented him with a tradition Cree War bonnet following the Pope's apology to the Indigenous peoples in Canada at Maskwacis, Alberta on 25 July 2022.
Honorific eponyms and dedications
Philippines: The Pope Francis Center for the Poor – Palo, Leyte (12 July 2015)- Ennio Morricone composed a Mass setting (Missa Papae Francisci) named after the pope, for the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the restoration of the Jesuit order. The performance aired on Rai 5 and was attended by former Italian President Giorgio Napolitano and other dignitaries.
- The composer Ludger Stühlmeyer dedicated his work Klangrede – Sonnengesang des Franziskus, for choir (SATB) and instruments – to Pope Francis (Suae Sanctitati Papae Francisci dedicat.). First performance: Capella Mariana 4 October 2015.
Appreciation
In the oratorio Laudato si' by Peter Reulein (music) written on a libretto by Helmut Schlegel OFM, the figure of Francis appears next to Mary, Francis of Assisi, and Clare of Assisi. In the oratorio, Pope Franziskus suggests a bridge from the crucifixion scene on Golgotha to the suffering of the present. He emphasizes the female talent and the importance of the charism of women for church and society. The texts of the encyclicals Laudato si' and Evangelii gaudium were used. The motto of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy also plays a central role. The oratorio was premiered on 6 November 2016 in the Limburg Cathedral.
Coat of arms
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Writings
Pope Francis wrote a variety of books, encyclicals, and other writings.
Music album
Wake Up! was released on 27 November 2015 by the label Believe Digital and contains speeches by Francis and accompanying music, including rock music.
Films
Documentary film
By 2015, there were two biographical films about Francis: Call Me Francesco (Italy, 2015), starring Rodrigo de la Serna, and Francis: Pray for me (Argentina, 2015), starring Darío Grandinetti.
Pope Francis: A Man of His Word is a documentary film with Swiss-Italian-French-German co-production, co-written and directed by Wim Wenders. It premiered at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival and was released in the United States on 18 May 2018. It includes extensive sections of interviews as well as stock footage from archives.
On 21 October 2020, the documentary Francesco directed by film producer Evgeny Afineevsky premiered.
On 4 October 2022, the documentary The Letter: A Message for our Earth premiered on YouTube Originals, directed by Nicolas Brown and produced by Off The Fence in partnership with Laudato Si' Movement.
Portrayal in film
Francis is played by Jonathan Pryce in the biographical drama film The Two Popes (2019), costarring with Anthony Hopkins who plays Pope Benedict XVI.
See also
In Spanish: Francisco (papa) para niños
- List of current Christian leaders
- List of current heads of state and government
- List of people beatified by Pope Francis
- List of popes
Images for kids
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Bergoglio on 18 June 2008 giving a catechesis
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Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio in 2008
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Francis with Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, holding traditional Argentine mate drinkware
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Inauguration of Francis, 19 March 2013
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Thousands welcomed Francis in Guayaquil, Ecuador, 6 July 2015.
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Francis in Quito, Ecuador, 2015
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The stamp is dedicated to the pastoral visit of Francis to Azerbaijan on 2 October 2016.
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Francis opens the Holy Door, marking the beginning of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy.
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Francis and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva both tried to find a peaceful solution to the war between Russia and Ukraine
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Francis visits a favela in Brazil during World Youth Day 2013.
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Francis with Cuban leader Raúl Castro in September 2015
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