Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City from 13 March 2013 until his death in 2025. He was the first Jesuit pope, the first Latin American, and the first pope born or raised outside Europe since the 8th-century Syrian pope Gregory III.
Born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to a family of Italian origin, Bergoglio was inspired to join the Jesuits in 1958 after recovering from a severe illness. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1969, and from 1973 to 1979 he 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. Following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, the 2013 papal conclave elected Bergoglio as pope on 13 March. He chose Francis as his papal name in honor of Saint Francis of Assisi.
Throughout his papacy, Francis was noted for his humility, emphasis on God's mercy, international visibility, commitment to interreligious dialogue, and concern for the poor, migrants, and refugees. He made women and laymen full members of dicasteries in the Roman Curia. He believed the Catholic Church should demonstrate more inclusivity to LGBTQ people, and permitted non-liturgical blessings of individuals in same-sex relationships. He also convened the Synod on Synodality, which was described as the culmination of his papacy and the most important event in the Catholic Church since the Second Vatican Council. He was well known for having a less formal approach to the papacy than his predecessors by, for instance, choosing to reside in the Domus Sanctae Marthae guesthouse rather than in the papal apartments of the Apostolic Palace used by previous popes. In addition, due to both his Jesuit and Ignatian aesthetic, he was known for favoring simpler vestments devoid of ornamentation, including refusing the traditional papal mozzetta cape upon his election, choosing silver instead of gold for his piscatory ring, and keeping the same iron pectoral cross he had as cardinal.
Concerning global governance, Francis was a critic of trickle-down economics, consumerism, and overdevelopment; he made action on climate change a leading focus of his papacy. He viewed capital punishment as inadmissible in all cases, and committed the Catholic Church to its worldwide abolition. Francis criticized the rise of right-wing populism and anti-immigration politics, calling the protection of migrants a "duty of civilization", and called for the decriminalization of homosexuality. In international diplomacy, he also helped to restore diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States, negotiated a deal with China to define Communist Party influence in appointing Chinese bishops,<!--Here to the end of the sentence subject to Extended confirmed restriction --> and encouraged peace between Israel and Palestinians, signing the Vatican's first treaty with Palestine and condemning Israel's military operations in Gaza, as well as calling for investigations of war crimes. In 2022, he apologized for the Church's role in the Canadian Indian residential school system. Following a period of declining health and multiple scares, Francis made his last public appearance on Easter Sunday before dying on 21 April 2025, Easter Monday. The 2025 conclave elected Leo XIV as Francis's successor on 8 May, becoming the second pope from the Americas, after Francis.
Early life
thumb|Jorge Mario Bergoglio (fourth boy from the left in the third row from the top) at age 12, Salesian College ( 1948–1949)
Pope Francis was born Jorge Mario Bergoglio on 17 December 1936 in Flores, Regina Sívori 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 then attended the technical secondary school Escuela Técnica Industrial Nº 27 Hipólito Yrigoyen In that capacity, he spent several years working in the food section of Hickethier-Bachmann Laboratory He then studied at the archdiocesan seminary, Inmaculada Concepción Seminary, in Villa Devoto, Buenos Aires, and, after three years, entered the Society of Jesus as a novice on 11 March 1958. As a Jesuit novice, he studied the humanities in Santiago, Chile.
After his novitiate, Bergoglio officially became a Jesuit on 12 March 1960 when he made the religious profession of the initial, perpetual vows of poverty, chastity and obedience of a member of the order. In 1960, Bergoglio obtained a licentiate in philosophy from the Colegio Máximo de San José. He then taught literature and psychology at the Colegio de la Inmaculada Concepción, a high school in Santa Fe, from 1964 to 1965. In 1966, he taught the same courses at Colegio del Salvador in Buenos Aires.
In 1967, Bergoglio began his theological studies at Facultades de Filosofía y Teología de San Miguel. On 13 December 1969, he was ordained as a priest by Archbishop Ramón José Castellano. He served as the master of novices for the province there and became a professor of theology.
Bergoglio completed his final stage of spiritual training as a Jesuit, tertianship, at Alcalá de Henares, Spain, and took final vows as a Jesuit, including the fourth vow of obedience to missioning by the pope, on 22 April 1973. In 1973, he made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, but his stay was shortened by the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War.
After the completion of his term of office, he was named, in 1980, the rector of the Philosophical and Theological Faculty of San Miguel where he had studied. Before taking up this new appointment, he spent the first three months of 1980 in Ireland to learn English and stayed at the Jesuit Centre at the Milltown Institute of Theology and Philosophy, Dublin. He then served at San Miguel for six years until 1986
Bergoglio then spent several months at the Sankt Georgen Graduate School of Philosophy and Theology in Frankfurt and considered possible dissertation topics. He settled on exploring the work of the German-Italian theologian Romano Guardini, particularly his study of "Contrast" published in his 1925 work '. As a student at the Salesian school, Bergoglio was mentored by Ukrainian Greek Catholic priest Stefan Czmil. Bergoglio often rose hours before his classmates to serve Divine Liturgy for Czmil.
Bergoglio was named Auxiliary Bishop of Buenos Aires in 1992 and was consecrated on 27 June 1992 as titular bishop of Auca, with Cardinal Antonio Quarracino, archbishop of Buenos Aires, serving as principal consecrator. He chose his episcopal motto to be , drawn from Saint Bede's homily on Matthew 9:9–13: "because he saw him through the eyes of mercy and chose him". In 1992, Jesuit authorities asked Bergoglio not to live in Jesuit residences due to ongoing tensions with leaders and scholars; concerns about his "dissent", views on Catholic orthodoxy, and opposition to liberation theology; and his role as auxiliary bishop of Buenos Aires. One of Bergoglio's major initiatives as archbishop was to increase the church's presence in the shantytown (, or just ) slums of Buenos Aires. Under his leadership, the number of priests assigned to work in the shantytowns doubled, and he visited them himself. This work led to him being referred to as the " bishop", sometimes translated as the "slum bishop".
Early in his tenure as archbishop, Bergoglio sold the archdiocese's bank shares and moved its accounts to regular international banks. This ended the church's high spending habits, which had nearly led to its bankruptcy, and enforced stricter fiscal discipline. On 6 November 1998, while remaining archbishop of Buenos Aires, Bergoglio was named Ordinary for Eastern Catholics in Argentina, who lacked a prelate of their own church. That same year, Bergoglio said the Argentine Catholic Church needed "to put on garments of public penance for the sins committed during the years of the dictatorship" in the 1970s, during the Dirty War. Bergoglio continued to be the archbishop of Buenos Aires after his elevation to the cardinalate in 2001. In 2007, shortly after Benedict XVI introduced new rules for pre–Vatican II liturgical forms, Bergoglio established a weekly Mass in this extraordinary form of the Roman Rite.
On 8 November 2005, Bergoglio was elected president of the Argentine Episcopal Conference for a three-year term (2005–2008), and re-elected on 11 November 2008. He remained a member of that commission's permanent governing body, the president of its committee for the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina, and a member of its liturgy committee for the care of shrines. When he turned 75 in December 2011, Bergoglio submitted his resignation as archbishop of Buenos Aires to Pope Benedict XVI as required by canon law.
As a bishop, he was no longer subject to his Jesuit superior. From then on, he no longer visited Jesuit houses and was in "virtual estrangement from the Jesuits" until after his election as pope. As cardinal, Bergoglio was appointed to five administrative positions in the Roman Curia. He was a member of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments; the Congregation for the Clergy; the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life; the Pontifical Council for the Family; and the Commission for Latin America. Later that year, when Cardinal Edward Egan returned to New York following the September 11 attacks, Bergoglio replaced him as relator (recording secretary) in the Synod of Bishops, and, according to the Catholic Herald, created "a favourable impression as a man open to communion and dialogue".
Cardinal Bergoglio was known for his personal humility, doctrinal conservatism, and commitment to social justice. He limited his time in Rome to "lightning visits".
After Pope John Paul II died on 2 April 2005, Bergoglio attended his funeral and was considered one of the for succession to the papacy. He participated as a cardinal elector in the 2005 papal conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI. In the National Catholic Reporter, John L. Allen Jr. reported that Bergoglio was a frontrunner in the 2005 conclave. In September 2005, the Italian magazine Limes published claims that Bergoglio had been the runner-up and main challenger to Cardinal Ratzinger at that conclave and that he had received 40 votes in the third ballot but fell back to 26 at the fourth and decisive ballot. The claims were based on a diary purportedly belonging to an anonymous cardinal who had been present at the conclave. According to the Italian journalist Andrea Tornielli, this number of votes had no precedent for a Latin American . According to Tornielli, Bergoglio made this request to prevent the conclave from delaying too much in the election of a pope.
As a cardinal, Bergoglio was associated with Communion and Liberation, a Catholic evangelical lay movement of the type known as associations of the faithful. Bergoglio also ordered an investigation into the murders;
Argentine government relations
Dirty War
Bergoglio was the subject of allegations regarding the Argentine Navy's kidnapping of two Jesuit priests, Orlando Yorio and Franz Jalics, in 1976, during Argentina's Dirty War. After being tortured in captivity, the priests were found alive months later outside Buenos Aires, drugged and partially unclothed. In 2005, Myriam Bregman, a human rights lawyer, filed a criminal complaint against Bergoglio, as superior in the Society of Jesus of Argentina, accusing him of actual involvement in the kidnapping. Two days after the election of Francis, Jalics issued a statement confirming the kidnapping and attributing the cause to a former lay colleague who became a guerrilla, was captured, then named Yorio and Jalics when interrogated. The following week, Jalics issued a second, clarifying statement: "It is wrong to assert that our capture took place at the initiative of Father Bergoglio ... Orlando Yorio and I were not denounced by Father Bergoglio."
Bergoglio told his authorized biographer, Sergio Rubin, that he worked behind the scenes for the priests' release; Bergoglio's intercession with dictator Jorge Rafael Videla on their behalf may have saved their lives. Alicia Oliveira, a former Argentine judge, also reported that Bergoglio helped people flee Argentina during the rule of the junta. Since Francis became pope, Gonzalo Mosca and José Caravias have related accounts to journalists of how Bergoglio helped them flee the dictatorship.
Oliveira described Bergoglio as "anguished" and "very critical of the dictatorship" during the Dirty War. Oliveira met with him at the time and urged Bergoglio to speak out—he told her that "he couldn't. That it wasn't an easy thing to do." Graciela Fernández Meijide, a member of the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights, also said that there was no proof linking Bergoglio with the dictatorship. She told the Clarín newspaper:
<blockquote>There is no information and Justice couldn't prove it. I was in the APDH during all the dictatorship years and I received hundreds of testimonies. Bergoglio was never mentioned. It was the same in the CONADEP. Nobody mentioned him as instigator or as anything.</blockquote>
Ricardo Lorenzetti, the president of the Argentine Supreme Court, said that Bergoglio was "completely innocent" of the accusations. Historian Uki Goñi pointed that, during early 1976, the military junta still had a good image among society, and that the scale of the political repression was not known until much later; Bergoglio would have had little reason to suspect that the detention of Yorio and Jalics could end in their deaths.
Fernando de la Rúa
Fernando de la Rúa replaced Carlos Menem as president of Argentina in 1999. As an archbishop, Bergoglio celebrated the annual Mass at the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Cathedral on the First National Government holiday, 25 May. During Argentina's economic depression, the Catholic Church criticized the government's austerity measures, which worsened poverty. De la Rúa asked the church to facilitate dialogue between economic and political leaders to address the crisis. Although he claimed to have spoken with Bergoglio, Bergoglio reportedly said the meeting was canceled due to a misunderstanding. Bishop Jorge Casaretto had doubted this, noting that De la Rúa made the request only in newspaper interviews, not formally to the church.
In the 2001 elections, the Justicialist Party won a majority in Congress and appointed Ramón Puerta as Senate president. Bergoglio met with Puerta and was positively impressed. Puerta assured him that the Justicialist Party was not planning to oust De la Rúa and promised to support the president in advancing necessary legislation.
During police repression of the riots of December 2001, Bergoglio contacted the Ministry of the Interior and asked that the police distinguish rioters and vandals from peaceful protesters.
Néstor and Cristina Kirchner
thumb|Francis with Argentine president [[Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, holding traditional Argentine mate drinkware]]
When Bergoglio celebrated Mass at the cathedral for the 2004 First National Government holiday, President Néstor Kirchner attended and heard Bergoglio request more political dialogue, the rejection of intolerance, and the criticism of exhibitionism and strident announcements. Kirchner celebrated the national day elsewhere the following year and the Mass in the cathedral was suspended. In 2006, Bergoglio helped fellow Jesuit Joaquín Piña win the elections in the Misiones Province and prevent an amendment to the local constitution that would allow indefinite re-elections. Kirchner intended to use that project to start similar amendments at other provinces and eventually implement it in the national constitution. Kirchner considered Bergoglio as a political rival until he died in 2010. Bergoglio's relations with Kirchner's widow and successor, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, have been similarly tense. In 2008, Bergoglio called for national reconciliation during disturbances in the country's agricultural regions, which the government interpreted as a support for anti-government demonstrators. On the day before his inauguration as pope, Bergoglio, now Francis, had a private meeting with Kirchner where they exchanged gifts and lunched together. This was the new pope's first meeting with a head of state, and there was speculation that the two were mending their relations. then removed their controversial articles about Bergoglio from their web page as a result of this change.
Javier Milei
Before Javier Milei's election to the Argentine presidency in 2023, he was very critical of Francis, describing him as "imbecile" and a "communist turd". His disparaging comments sparked controversy among Catholics. However, following his inauguration, Milei softened his position and formally invited Francis to Argentina. Milei visited the Vatican on 11 February 2024, the day Francis canonized María Antonia de Paz y Figueroa, the first female Argentine saint.
Papacy (2013–2025)
Francis also said that some cardinal electors had jokingly suggested to him that he should choose either "Adrian", since Adrian VI had been a reformer of the church, or "Clement", to settle the score with Clement XIV who had suppressed the Jesuit order. Bergoglio, had he been elected in 2005, would have chosen the pontifical name of "John XXIV" in honor of John XXIII. He told Cardinal Francesco Marchisano: "John, I would have called myself John, like the Good Pope; I would have been completely inspired by him."
Curia
thumb|Inauguration of Francis, 19 March 2013
Francis abolished the bonuses paid to Vatican employees upon the election of a new pope, amounting to several million euros, opting instead to donate the money to charity. He also abolished the €25,000 annual bonus paid to cardinals serving on the Board of Supervisors for the Vatican bank.
On 13 April 2013, Francis named eight cardinals to a new Council of Cardinal Advisers to advise him on revising the organizational structure of the Roman Curia. The group included several known critics of Vatican operations and only one member of the Curia.
Early issues
On the first Holy Thursday following his election, Francis washed and kissed the feet of ten male and two female juvenile offenders imprisoned at Rome's Casal del Marmo detention facility, telling them the ritual of foot washing is a sign that he is at their service. This was the first time that a pope had included women in this ritual, although he had already done so when he was archbishop. He also spoke out against those who give in to "easy gain" in a world filled with greed and made a plea for humanity to become a better guardian of creation by protecting the environment.
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thumb|Thousands welcomed Francis in [[Guayaquil, Ecuador, 6 July 2015.]] nice pic but neither of him nor of thousands -->
In 2013, Francis initially reaffirmed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's programme to reform the US Leadership Conference of Women Religious which had been initiated under his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI. The New York Times reported that the Vatican had formed the opinion in 2012 that the sisters' group had some feminist influences, focused too much on ending social and economic injustice and not enough on stopping abortion, and permitted speakers who questioned church doctrine.
Synodal church
thumb|Francis in [[Quito, Ecuador, 2015|254x254px]]
Francis oversaw synods on the family (2014), on youth (2018), and on the church in the Amazon region (2019). In 2019 Francis's apostolic constitution ' allowed that the final document of a synod may become magisterial teaching simply with papal approval. The constitution also allowed for laity to contribute input directly to the synod's secretary general. Some analysts see the creation of a truly synodal church as likely to become the greatest contribution to Francis's papacy.
On 4 October 2023, Francis convened the beginnings of the Synod on Synodality, described by some as the culmination of his papacy and one of the most important events in the Church since the Second Vatican Council. There had long been allegations of corruption and money laundering connected with the bank. Francis appointed a commission to advise him about reform of the Bank, In January 2014, Francis replaced four of the five cardinal overseers of the Vatican Bank who had been confirmed in their positions in the final days of Benedict XVI's papacy. Lay experts and clerics were looking into how the bank was run. Ernst von Freyberg was put in charge. Moneyval felt more reform was needed, and Francis showed some willingness to close the bank if the reforms proved too difficult. There was uncertainty about how far reforms could succeed.
Writings
Pope Francis wrote a variety of books, encyclicals, and other texts, including a memoir, Hope. On 29 June 2013, Francis published the encyclical ', which was largely the work of Benedict XVI but awaited a final draft at his retirement. On 24 November 2013, Francis published his first major letter as pope, the apostolic exhortation ', which he described as the programmatic of his papacy. On 18 June 2015, he published his first own encyclical ' concerning care for the planet. On 8 April 2016, Francis published his second apostolic exhortation, , remarking on love within the family. Controversy arose at the end of 2016 when four cardinals formally asked Francis for clarifications, particularly on the issue of giving communion to divorced and civilly remarried Catholics.
A further apostolic exhortation, (Rejoice and be glad), was published on 19 March 2018, dealing with "the call to holiness" for all persons. He counters contemporary versions of the gnostic and Pelagian heresies and describes how Jesus's beatitudes call people to "go against the flow".
In February 2019, Francis acknowledged that priests and bishops were sexually abusing religious sisters. He addressed this and the clergy sex abuse scandal by convening a summit on clergy sexual abuse in February 2019. As a follow-up to that summit, on 9 May 2019 Francis promulgated the which specified responsibilities, including reporting directly to the Holy See on bishops and on one's superior, while simultaneously involving another bishop in the archdiocese of the accused bishop.
On 4 October 2020, Francis published the encyclical ' on fraternity and social friendship.
On 8 December 2020, on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, Pope Francis published the apostolic letter ("With a Father's Heart"). To mark the occasion, the Pope proclaimed a "Year of Saint Joseph" from 8 December 2020 to 8 December 2021 on the 150th Anniversary of the Proclamation of Saint Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church.
On 1 June 2021, Francis published the apostolic constitution '. The document reformed Vatican penal law by strengthening the penalties for sexual abuse and financial crimes; it also more harshly punished the ordination of women.
Ecumenism and interreligious dialogue
thumb|1.5 [[Azerbaijani manat postage stamp commemorating the pastoral visit of Francis to Azerbaijan on 2 October 2016.]]
Pope Francis upheld the Second Vatican Council's tradition by promoting ecumenism with other Christian denominations, encouraging dialogue with other religions, and supporting peace with secular individuals.
Clerical titles
In January 2014, Francis said that he would appoint fewer monsignors and only assign those honored to the lowest of the three surviving ranks of monsignor, chaplain of His Holiness; it would be awarded only to diocesan priests at least 65 years old. As archbishop of Buenos Aires, Francis never sought the title for any of his priests. It is believed he associated it with clerical careerism and hierarchy, although he did not apply this restriction to clergy working in the Roman Curia or diplomatic corps where careerism was an even greater concern.
Canonizations, beatifications and doctors of the church
thumb|left|upright=0.8|Francis on the occasion of the [[Canonization of Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II|canonization of John XXIII and John Paul II]]
Francis presided over the first canonizations of his pontificate on 12 May 2013 in which he canonized the Martyrs of Otranto—Antonio Primaldo and his 812 companions who had been executed by the Ottomans in 1480—as well as the religious sisters Laura of St. Catherine of Siena and María Guadalupe García Zavala. In this first canonization, Francis surpassed the record of Pope John Paul II in canonizing the most saints in a pontificate.
Saints the Pope canonized include Louis Martin and Marie-Azélie Guérin (the first married couple to be named as saints together), Mother Teresa, and Óscar Romero. Francis canonized three of his predecessors: John XXIII, John Paul II and Paul VI. and Blessed.
Francis declared two new Doctors of the Church: Saint Gregory of Narek in 2015, and Saint Irenaeus of Lyon in 2022.
Consistories
Francis created 163 cardinals from 76 countries across ten consistories. He held his first consistory in February 2014, a rare occasion in which he publicly appeared with his predecessor, Benedict XVI. After the 2024 consistory, 110 cardinals appointed by Francis were under the age of 80 and thus eligible to vote at a papal conclave. There were, at that point, 110 cardinal-electors created by Francis, 24 created by Benedict XVI, and six created by John Paul II.
Francis's appointments made the College of Cardinals less European-dominated. He appointed many cardinals from developing countries, including some of the world's poorest, and from countries on the peripheries of the church.
Compared to his predecessors, Francis made fewer appointments of Roman Curia officials to the cardinalate. Compared to his predecessor Benedict, who preferred to appoint academically inclined churchmen as cardinal, Francis favored cardinals with a more pastoral focus, Francis also dropped the traditional custom of always appointing the archbishops of certain historically prominent sees (such as the Patriarch of Venice and Archbishop of Milan) as cardinals.
The Holy Doors of the major basilicas of Rome were opened, and special "Doors of Mercy" were opened at cathedrals and other major churches around the world, where the faithful could earn indulgences by fulfilling the usual conditions of prayer for the pope's intentions, confession, and detachment from sin, and communion. During Lent of that year, special 24-hour penance services were celebrated, and during the year, special qualified and experienced priests called "Missionaries of Mercy" were available in every diocese to forgive even severe, special-case sins normally reserved to the Holy See's Apostolic Penitentiary.
COVID-19 pandemic
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Francis canceled his regular general audiences at St. Peter's Square to keep crowds from gathering and spreading the virus, which had seriously affected Italy. He encouraged priests to visit patients and health workers; urged the faithful not to forget the poor during the time of crisis; offered prayers for people with the virus in China; and invoked the Blessed Virgin Mary under her title Salus Populi Romani, as the Diocese of Rome observed a period of prayer and fasting in recognition of the victims. The pontiff reacted with displeasure on 13 March 2020 to the news that the Vicar General had closed all churches in the Diocese of Rome. Despite Italy being under a quarantine lockdown, Francis pleaded "not to leave the ... people alone" and worked to partially reverse the closures.
On 20 March 2020, Francis asked the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development (DPIHD) to create a Vatican COVID-19 Commission to listen to concerns and develop responses for the future. On 27 March, Francis gave an extraordinary benediction . In his homily on calming the storm in the Gospel of Mark, Francis described the setting:
<blockquote>Dense darkness has thickened on our squares, streets and cities; it looks over our lives filling everything with a deafening silence and a desolate void that paralyzes everything in its passage: you can feel it in the air, you can feel it in your gestures. ...In the face of suffering, where the true development of our peoples is measured, we discover and experience the priestly prayer of Jesus: 'may all be one'.</blockquote>
Francis maintained that getting COVID-19 vaccination was a moral obligation. In response to the economic harm caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Francis said that it was the time to consider implementing a universal basic wage.
Death penalty
Francis committed the Catholic Church to support worldwide abolition of the death penalty. 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". In his 2020 encyclical ', Francis repeated that the death penalty was "inadmissible", and that "there can be no stepping back from this position."
Role of women
Francis categorically rejected the ordination of women as priests. Its report was not made public, but Francis said in 2019 that the commission was unable to come to a consensus. In April 2020, Francis empaneled a new commission, led by Cardinal Giuseppe Petrocchi with a new membership, to study the issue. Francis delayed a decision on the issue for several years. The following month, Francis appointed women to several positions previously held only by men: a French member of the Xaviere Missionary Sisters, Nathalie Becquart, was appointed co-undersecretary of the Synod of Bishops, and Italian magistrate Catia Summaria became the first woman Promoter of Justice in the Vatican's Court of Appeals.
In April 2023, Francis announced that 35 women would be allowed to vote at the Sixteenth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops ("just over 10%" of all voters), marking the first time women are allowed to vote at any Catholic Synod of Bishops.
Financial corruption
Francis was mandated by electing cardinals to sort out Vatican finances following scandals during the papacies of Pope Benedict and Pope John Paul II. He stated he was determined to end corruption in the Catholic Church but was not very optimistic due to it being a human problem dating back centuries.
Apologies toward Indigenous peoples
Early in 2022, Francis expressed "shame and sorrow" for the Catholic Church's role in abuses against the Indigenous peoples in Canada. Later, in July 2022, Francis made an apostolic journey to Canada, where he expressed sorrow, indignation, and shame over the church's abuse of Canadian Indigenous children in residential schools. Francis described the Canadian Catholic Church's role as a "cultural genocide".
Early in his papacy, Francis chose a more lenient sentence for Mauro Inzoli, an Italian priest accused of child sexual abuse. A church tribunal had ruled that Inzoli should be laicized (defrocked), and he was defrocked in 2012 by Francis's predecessor Benedict. In 2018, Francis acknowledged he had made "grave errors" in judgment about Barros, apologized to the victims and launched a Vatican investigation that resulted in the resignation of three Chilean bishops: Barros, Gonzalo Duarte, and Cristián Caro.
In 2019, Francis defrocked Theodore McCarrick, a former archbishop of Washington, who maintained a prominent position in the church for decades despite repeated reports of sexual misconduct against him dating back to the 1980s. In 2017, after renewed allegations against McCarrick, Francis commissioned a Vatican investigation, which found that McCarrick had sexually molested both adults and minors. In July 2018, McCarrick resigned from the College of Cardinals; in October 2018, Francis ordered a review of the Church's "institutional knowledge and decision-making" related to McCarrick. Francis authorized the release, in November 2020, of the report of the Vatican's two-year investigation into McCarrick's career. In December 2019, Francis abolished the "pontifical secrecy" privilege in sexual abuse cases, clarifying that bishops do not need authorization from the Vatican to turn over materials from canonical trials upon request of civil law enforcement authorities. The lifting of the confidentiality rule was praised by victim advocates, but did not require the Church to affirmatively turn over canonical documents to civil authorities.
In November 2022, French Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard admitted to having sexually abused a 14-year-old girl in the 1980s in Marseille. French authorities opened an investigation into the case while Francis commented that now that "everything is clearer [...] more cases like this shouldn't surprise [anyone]", and condemned sexual abuse as "against priestly nature, and also against social nature". Francis did not deprive Ricard of his status and privileges as a cardinal.
Francis visited Ireland in 2018, marking the first papal tour of the country since John Paul II's historic trip in 1979. He has apologized for sexual abuses by clergy in the United States and Ireland.
The case of Slovenian priest Marko Rupnik, accused of psychological, spiritual, and sexual abuse against multiple women, including nuns, drew significant controversy due to the Vatican's handling of the allegations. Initially, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) declined to prosecute, citing the statute of limitations, despite acknowledging there was a case to answer. Rupnik was expelled from the Society of Jesus in 2023 for disobedience rather than for the abuse allegations and was later incardinated into the Diocese of Koper. Following widespread public outcry, Pope Francis ordered the case to be reopened and re-examined. After his conviction, Rupnik preached in 2020 a Lenten meditation for priests working in the Roman Curia, including Pope Francis and Luis Ladaria Ferrer, and met privately with Pope Francis in January 2022. In January 2025, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández confirmed the DDF was working to establish an independent tribunal to move forward with judicial proceedings.
Theological emphases and teachings
In ', Francis revealed what would be the emphases of his pontificate: a missionary impulse among all Catholics, sharing the faith more actively, avoiding worldliness by more visibly living the gospel of God's mercy, and helping the poor and working for social justice.
Since 2016, criticism against Francis by theological conservatives has intensified. Some have explained the level of disagreement as due to his going beyond theoretical principles to pastoral discernment.
Evangelization
From his first major letter ' (Joy to the World), Francis called for "a missionary and pastoral conversion" whereby the laity would fully share in the missionary task of the church. Then, in his letter on the call of all to the same holiness, ', Francis describes holiness as "an impulse to evangelize and to leave a mark in this world".
<span class="anchor" id="Ordination of women"></span><span class="anchor" id="Clergy"></span>Church governance
thumb|A Carnival float of Francis and Germany's prelate [[Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, Düsseldorf, 2014]]
Francis called for decentralization of governance away from Rome and for a synodal manner of decision-making in dialogue with the people. He strongly opposed clericalism and made women full members of the church's dicasteries in Rome.
Environment and climate change
Francis's naming was an early indication of how he shared Francis of Assisi's care for all of creation. This was followed in May 2015 with his major encyclical on the environment, ' (Praise be to you). In October 2023, in advance of the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28), Francis issued the apostolic exhortation ' (Praise God), in which he called for decisive action to against the climate crisis and condemned climate change denial.
At the 2017 World Food Day ceremony, Francis highlighted the daily impacts of climate change and the solutions provided by scientific knowledge. He pointed out that while the international community had established legal frameworks such as the Paris Agreement, some nations had been withdrawing. He then expressed concern over a renewed indifference to ecosystem balance, the belief in controlling limited resources, and a greed for profit. In 2019, he stated that ecocide was a sin and should be made "a fifth category of crimes against peace".
In May 2024, Francis organized a climate summit that issued a Planetary Protocol for Climate Change Resilience including three pillars: greenhouse gas emissions reduction (while prioritizing nature-based solutions), climate change adaptation, and societal transformation. The next month, Francis issued an apostolic letter titled ' (Brother sun, referring to Saint Francis' Canticle of the Sun), ordering the Vatican to construct an agrivoltaics facility on its land holdings on the outskirts of Rome, as a gesture of the Church towards the environmental movement.
<span class="anchor" id="Poverty"></span><span class="anchor" id="Liberation theology"></span>Option for the poor
thumb|Francis visits a [[favela in Brazil during World Youth Day 2013]]
Francis had highly extolled "popular movements" which demonstrate the "strength of us", serve as a remedy to the "culture of the self", and are based on solidarity with the poor and the common good. He had praised liberation theology founder Gustavo Gutierrez. In 2024, he met with representatives of the Dialop group, a discussion group between Christians and Marxists, and encouraged them to cooperate.
In September 2024, Francis renewed calls for a universal basic income, as well as higher taxes on billionaires.
<span class="anchor" id="Abortion"></span><span class="anchor" id="Contraception and family planning"></span><span class="anchor" id="Capital punishment and life imprisonment"></span>Morality
Cardinal Walter Kasper had called mercy "the key word of his pontificate". While maintaining the Catholic Church's traditional teaching against abortion, Francis had referred to the "obsession" of some Catholics with a few issues such as "abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods" which "do not show the heart of the message of Jesus Christ".
LGBTQ
While serving as the archbishop of Buenos Aires, Bergoglio led public opposition to the parliamentary bill on legalizing same-sex marriage in Argentina, which was eventually approved by the Argentine Senate in 2010. A letter he wrote in that campaign was criticized for using "medieval" and "obscurantist" language. A church source quoted in the Argentine newspaper La Nación called the letter a strategic error that contributed to the bill's success.
As Pope, Francis marked a more accommodative tone on some LGBTQ topics than his predecessors. In July 2013, his televised "Who am I to judge?" statement was widely reported in the international press, becoming one of his most famous statements on LGBTQ people. In other public statements, Francis emphasized the need to accept, welcome, and accompany LGBTQ people, including LGBTQ children. Francis reiterated traditional Catholic teaching that marriage is between a man and a woman, but supported civil unions as legal protections for same-sex couples. Under his pontificate, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith confirmed that transgender people can be baptised. The blessing of individuals in same-sex relationships was allowed by the document . In 2013, Francis was named Person of the Year by The Advocate, an American LGBTQ magazine.
In September 2015, Francis met with Kim Davis, a county clerk who was jailed for six days for contempt of court for refusing to issue marriage licenses for same-sex couples. In August 2018, Francis was criticized for suggesting that gay children seek psychiatric treatment, but he then rescinded the statement. He described gender theory and children's education on gender-affirming surgery as "ideological colonization". He further wrote: