Pope Francis dies aged 88 after overseeing one of the Catholic Church's most tumultuous periods

The first Jesuit and Latin American pontiff Pope Francis — born Jorge Mario Bergoglio — has died, aged 88.

From the moment he stepped onto the Vatican balcony in his fresh white robes on March 13, 2013, Pope Francis established himself as a very different kind of pontiff.

"Good evening!" he bellowed to the crowd of 150,000 people packed into St Peter's Square to witness this historic moment.

At the time Catholics around the world had been shocked by the sudden resignation of Pope Benedict XVI a month earlier.

The German's papacy lasted just eight years, and he became the first pope in six centuries to voluntarily give up St Peter's throne.

A shy academic who liked to play the piano and spend time with his cats, Pope Benedict lacked the charisma of previous pontiffs and divided Catholics with his deeply conservative views on bioethics and the modernisation of the Church.

Now, with the ascension of Pope Francis, it seemed like the world's 1.25 billion Catholics had a rock star at the helm.

"Let us say this prayer, your prayer for me, in silence," he told the cheering crowd.

It was a small, but stunning, break with tradition.

Rather than blessing the crowd as his first public act, the new pontiff humbly asked for the flock to pray for him.

From that moment, Pope Francis captured hearts and minds.

Gawker labelled him "our cool new pope".

Time Magazine declared him its Person of the Year in 2013.

"In a matter of months, Francis has elevated the healing mission of the church — the church as servant and comforter of hurting people in an often harsh world — above the doctrinal police work so important to his recent predecessors," Time wrote.

But maintaining such adulation was always going to be difficult when Pope Francis took over the church at what would be a critical juncture for Catholicism.

Rocked by horrific allegations of sexual abuse by clergy, as well as claims of corruption and infighting within the Vatican, Pope Francis oversaw one of the most tumultuous periods in the church's modern history.

From janitor to Jesuit priest

Jorge Mario Bergoglio was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Italian immigrants in 1936.

Before entering the seminary, he worked as a bouncer, a janitor and a chemical technician in the food-processing industry.

But a calling led him to enter the Society of Jesus — or Jesuit Order — in 1958.

Taking vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, Bergoglio committed himself to a Catholic group with a long and somewhat chequered history.

Indeed, he was the first Jesuit pope — and the first from the Americas.

Scholarship is central to the Jesuit mission and, accordingly, Bergoglio studied humanities, philosophy and theology.

He was ordained as a priest in 1969, took his final vows in 1973, and served as head of the Jesuit province of Argentina from that same year.

But then Father Bergoglio's tenure came at a time of major upheaval for the Latin American nation.

The 1976 military coup and subsequent Dirty War saw tens of thousands of Argentinians "disappeared" — kidnapped, tortured and often killed.

Two Jesuit priests were among those affected.

In 1976, Fathers Orlando Yorio and Ferenc (Franz) Jálics were kidnapped from their poor neighbourhoods and held for five months by an extreme right-wing paramilitary group.

Some believed Bergoglio didn't do enough to protect the priests, while others accused him of turning the men over to the military junta. Ultimately, Jálics absolved Bergoglio of any wrongdoing.

Humble service to the poor

Bergoglio became archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998, and he was created a cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 2001.

His appointments coincided with another period of upheaval.

In 2001, Argentina experienced a devastating economic crisis that saw the country's currency rapidly devalued. It sparked high unemployment levels, and political and social turmoil.

Against this backdrop, Bergoglio developed a reputation for humility.

He chose to live in a simple downtown apartment, instead of the archbishop's residence, and he would travel by foot or public transport, rather than chauffeured limousine.

The Argentinian brought these values with him to the Vatican when he was elected pope in 2013.

The new pope selected the name Francis, after St Francis of Assisi, who he described as "a man of poverty and of peace".

It was also a nod to St Francis Xavier, a founding member of the Jesuits.

The role of women in the church

While the media often portrayed Francis as the "progressive" pope, the reality was far more complex.

He was a champion for the poor, the environment and Indigenous rights, and he made many efforts to bring Christians and non-Christians together.

His 2015 encyclical, or papal letter, Laudato si' (Praise Be to You) condemned unfettered greed and outlined the links between climate change and global poverty.

Pope Francis also elevated women in ways that previous popes had not.

Early in his papacy, he chose to wash the feet of two women, including one of Muslim faith, in a juvenile detention centre for Maundy Thursday.

This ceremony is a re-enactment of Jesus washing the feet of the Twelve Apostles, so it has traditionally excluded female participation.

Pope Francis also mandated that church leadership should extend wider than the bishops and ordained clergy to include women and lay people.

In November 2023, he called on members of the International Theological Commission to "demasculinise the Church", and said that "women have a different capacity for theological reflection than we men".

Yet, on the ordination of women, Pope Francis supported a male-only priesthood.

A 'historic gesture' and a sharp condemnation

Francis paved the way for greater LGBTQIA+ inclusion.

In 2013, when asked by media about the sexual orientation of priests, he said: "If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?"

A decade later, he declared that being homosexual "isn't a crime", and encouraged Catholic bishops to welcome members of the LGBTQIA+ community into the Church.

In December 2023, Pope Francis made a landmark ruling by allowing Catholic priests to bless same-sex couples, provided the blessings are not part of regular Church rituals or liturgies.

While such a blessing is separate from the sacrament of heterosexual marriage, theologians have called it a "historic gesture".

In 2024, during a closed-door meeting with Italian bishops, the pope used a vulgar and derogatory term about gay men while reaffirming the Catholic Church's ban on gay priests.

He later apologised for using the homophobic term.

On other matters of sexual ethics, Pope Francis has expressed conservative views.

Like his predecessors, he emphatically condemned birth control, abortion, in vitro fertilisation and surrogacy as they are seen to violate natural law.

In his later years, the pope called pornography a "scourge" that constitutes a grave "threat to public health", and he said that "the experience of sexuality is impoverished" by contraception.

In January 2024, he made headlines after describing surrogate motherhood as "deplorable" and calling for an international ban.

Pope Francis described the practice as being a "grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child, based on the exploitation of situations of the mother's material needs".

The sexual abuse crisis

One of the greatest challenges for the Catholic Church during Francis's papacy has been the clerical sexual abuse crisis.

Yet, his record on this issue is varied.

Months after his appointment in 2013, Pope Francis called on the Catholic Church to "act decisively" against paedophile priests.

In a statement, he said that the Church must promote measures to protect young people, help victims and ensure the perpetrators are punished. He also said that victims of abuse were in his prayers.

In the decade since, Pope Francis has met sexual abuse victims and offered sincere apologies.

But critics say he hasn't done enough, particularly in relation to punishing and defrocking sexual offenders.

In 2020, Pope Francis was sued by three Australians allegedly sexually assaulted by Melbourne paedophile priest Michael Glennon. They claimed compensation from the pontiff for failing to take action to stop the clerical sexual abuse by a known abuser.

The following year, the pope made extensive revisions to the Vatican's Code of Canon Law, the in-house legal system that covers the 1.3 billion-member Catholic Church worldwide and operates independently from civil laws.

The most significant changes aimed at addressing shortcomings in the church's handling of sexual abuse. It removed much of the discretion that allowed bishops and religious superiors to ignore or cover up abuse.

Financial scandals in the Vatican

Sexual abuse hasn't been the only cover-up in the Catholic Church.

The Vatican has been rocked by financial scandals in recent years.

In December 2023, 75-year-old cardinal Angelo Becciu was convicted of embezzlement, abuse of office and witness tampering.

The former advisor to Pope Francis — once considered a papal contender himself — was sentenced to five and a half years in jail.

Becciu did not act alone. Nine other defendants, including financiers, lawyers and ex-Vatican employees, also faced accusations of financial crimes.

The landmark trial centred around a controversial investment deal.

The Secretariat of State — the Vatican department that works most closely with the pope — used church money to purchase a luxury building in London.

The 350 million euro ($570 million) property ended up costing the Vatican tens of millions of euros, and shone a light on the murky finances of the Holy See.

Some Vatican sources alleged that Pope Francis was aware of the misappropriation of Church funds years before they surfaced, but failed to act.

However, in recent years, the pontiff was active on the finances front.

He introduced several financial reforms, including stripping the Secretariat of State of control over its funds, closing investment accounts in foreign banks, and issuing ethical criteria for future investments.

The global papal tour

In 2024, Pope Francis embarked on the longest and most distant trip of his papacy.

His 12-day tour of South-East Asia and the Pacific started in Indonesia, which is home to the largest population of Muslims globally.

The pope met with Grand Imam Nasaruddin Umar at the iconic Istiqlal Mosque, where the pair bonded over a shared commitment to peace and protecting the environment.

Interfaith dialogue and the celebration of diversity were key messages of the trip.

Yet it was the pontiff's humility and lack of ostentation that went viral on Indonesian social media.

While Catholics only account for 3 per cent of Indonesians, that still equates to 8-9 million people.

In Jakarta, the pontiff celebrated mass with 60,000 Catholics inside one stadium, while another 26,000 watched from an adjacent arena.

His journey continued to Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste — home to the highest proportion of Catholics outside of the Vatican — and wrapped up in Singapore.

Good humour amid bad health

Pope Francis experienced bouts of ill health throughout his 88 years.

At 21, he suffered a severe case of pneumonia. It led to the removal of part of his right lung.

In later years, he underwent colon surgery, had acute bronchitis, and suffered from knee problems that left him requiring a wheelchair.

But it's sciatica — a chronic nerve condition that causes back, hip and leg pain — that has plagued Pope Francis for years.

He has said "the worst thing" to have happened during the early months of his pontificate was an attack of sciatica that made sit-down interviews extremely painful.

In 2020, Pope Francis skipped the Vatican's liturgies on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day due to sciatic pain.

Despite his many health battles, the pope has maintained his trademark sense of humour.

In 2023, upon exiting Gemelli hospital in Rome on April Fool's Day, he quipped: "I'm still alive!"

In February, the pope was again admitted to hospital, suffering from a complex respiratory infection involving asthmatic bronchitis.

Even in his final days, while being treated for double pneumonia, he "joked around" with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni during her visit to see him.

In death — as in life — Pope Francis was unafraid of breaking convention.

In December 2023, he revealed his plan to be buried in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, in honour of his devotion to the Virgin Mary. The Roman site is almost 5 kilometres from the Vatican.

He will be the first pontiff to be buried in Santa Maria Maggiore since 1669, and this will break the longstanding tradition of popes being laid to rest in the grottos beneath St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican.