On April 21, 2025, Pope Francis passed away. Francis was the 266th pope of the Catholic Church. Many gathered to mourn the loss and honor him at his funeral on April 26th, 2025. The funeral took place at Vatican City’s St. Peter’s Square, with 40,000 people in attendance in the square and 250,000 people gathering the streets surrounding it. Millions of others tuned in online.
Pope Francis was born in Flores, Buenos Aires, Argentina under the name Jorge Mario Bergoglio, and he made history as the first Latin American pope. Pope Francis was elected as the pope in March of 2013. According to CNN, Pope Francis wanted to take the name Francis, “…in honor of St. Francis of Assisi because he is a lover of the poor,” said Vatican deputy spokesman Thomas Rosica. “Cardinal Bergoglio had a special place in his heart and his ministry for the poor, for the disenfranchised, for those living on the fringes and facing injustice,” Rosica said.
Pope Francis was known as a Pope for the people, recognizing the church’s mistakes, and changing the church’s stance on different topics. Pope Francis defended topics such as same sex attraction, remarriage, and more in the church. According to Benedictine College, “Pope Francis upset many theologians by his references to divorce, remarriage and confession in his encyclical Amoris Laetitia. But a longtime hand in the Vatican told me I was right when I speculated that what he really wanted was sacramental confession for these catholics.”
Pope Francis made sure to correct wrongs within the church. Throughout the pope’s papacy, the catholic church was involved with many scandals of sexual abuse, and one of his biggest scandals involves him discrediting sexual abuse victims who claimed to be sexually abused by bishops in the church. Eventually, Pope Francis realized his mistake and resolved it by: “...he invited the victims to the Vatican and apologized in person. He then brought the entire Chilean bishops conference to Rome where he pressed them to resign,” according to PBS. Another significant moment with the Pope not standing for abuse within the church is when he defrocked a U.S. Cardinal, Theodore McCarrick after a Vatican investigation determined he abused minors as well as adults. According to PBS, Pope Francis later passed laws within the church, “…abolishing the use of pontifical secrecy and establishing procedures to investigate bishops who abuse or cover up for predator priests.”
That being said, it is important for the next Pope to take his role and honor his legacy. The conclave to choose who the next pope will begin May 7th. According to NPR, “The conclave will take place in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel, which will remain completely sealed off until the election is complete.” The conclave works by cardinals within the church taking an oath to “pledge to maintain absolute secrecy, and to keep away from any external interference related to the election.” Then, the cardinals will vote on the next pope, and two-thirds of the electors must be present for the vote to take place.
Though there are speculations on who the next pope will be, no one knows who it will be for sure. But what everyone is hoping for is that Pope Francis’ legacy is, and will continue to be lived up to throughout the catholic church’s future.
