Pope Francis dies at the age of 88.
According to the Associated Press, Pope Francis, the leader of the world’s Catholics, has died after a difficult period of illness, according to the Vatican.
Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the Vatican’s director of finance and administration, announced the news of the pope’s death in a message on the social network X.
Pope Francis had been hospitalized in Rome’s Gemelli Hospital since February 14 due to an infection in both lungs. The pope has been hospitalized several times in the past two years, the main reason for which was a lung infection.
The Vatican has been constantly updating the pope’s condition since his hospitalization.
The Catholic leader was discharged from the hospital on April 23 and made his first public appearance since being hospitalized in Rome, on the hospital balcony.
Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the Vatican’s archbishop, wrote on Telegram: “At 7:35 this morning, Francis, the bishop of Rome, returned to his eternal home.”
The Argentine monk was the first archbishop of the Catholic Church from South America. He was elected as the 266th pope of the Vatican after the retirement of Pope Benedict XVI in 2013.
He was born on December 17, 1936 in Flores, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Pope Francis is also the first non-European to be elected to the title in about 1,300 years (since the Syrian-born Pope Gregory III, who was appointed in 731).
The pope, whose real name is Jorge Mario Bergoglio, was appointed Archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998, and in this role, he continued to carry out his social and religious activities. He refused the special privileges of the church authorities and lived in a simple apartment instead of the episcopal palace.
Pope John Paul II created Bergoglio a cardinal in 2001. His reputation as a defender of the poor in the Catholic Church grew, and in 200,5 he was one of the leading candidates for the papacy, but ultimately stepped down in favor of Pope Benedict XVI.
After Pope Benedict XVI resigned in 2013, Bergoglio was elected as the new pope, taking the name Francis.