Pope Francis’ death mourned worldwide as Catholic Church prepares for next chapter

Vice President JD Vance with Pope Francis In the duration of Easter Sunday, a three -day family visit to Rome, said his office.

Vance, who became Catholicism in 2019, also with other Church officials and Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni.

“It was an honor to meet with Pope Francis, Prime Minister Meloni and Church officials in Italy this weekend,” Vance said on social networks during the night. “Visiting Roma with the week Santa Duration of my family was an incredible experience.”

Pope Francis He died on Monday At the age of 88, said the Vatican. He died almost a months after he was discharged from a hospital in Rome where he was treated for five weeks by a respiratory infection that remained in pneumonia.

Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1936, he was ordained a priest in 1969, increasing to become a Jesuit leader and archbishop of Buenos Aires. A cardinal was created by Pope John Paul II in 2001.

When it was Elected potato In 2013, the first of the Americas, decided to name himself after Francis de Asís, the patron saint of Italy, known for his simplicity and humanity. Pope Francis often said he wanted “a poorer church” and one that “would include the excluded.”

He led with the example, living in a humble room in the Vatican instead of the luxurious papal apartments, and demonstrating their compassion by having a homeless people, washing the feet of the inmates and providing a home in Italy for migrants and refugees.

The 88 -year -old pontiff will leave a legacy as a relatively progressive Pope. He tried to make the Catholic Church more inclusive, welcoming more women in leadership roles (he thought not the priesthood) and reaching LGBTQ people, saying: “Who am I to judge?” In doing so, he took a violent reaction not only from the conservatives, but also the liberals who argued that he was a niece far enough or quick enough to reform the institution of two millennia.

He also directed the Church in his calculation with years of child sexual abuse, although not always as aggressively as some critics expected.

In INTERVIEW 2024 With the Norah O’Donnell of CBS News, Francis said that the Church “must continue doing more. Unfortunately, the tragedy of the abuse is enormous. And against this, a straight consciousness, and not only do not do it but in the place of the condition.”