Pope Francis
Pope Francis was the first Jesuit pope, the first from the Americas, and the first to take that name. Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires in 1936 to Italian immigrants, he trained as a chemical technician, worked as a nightclub bouncer, and had part of a lung removed at twenty-one before entering the Society of Jesus. He was made provincial of the Argentine Jesuits at thirty-six, during the years of the military dictatorship. His conduct then has been argued over; he was accused of failing to protect two priests who were abducted and tortured, and testified that he had worked privately for their release, and no court has found against him. He became Archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998, lived in a small flat, cooked for himself, took the bus, and worked in the slums. He was elected in March 2013 after Benedict's resignation, and set a different register immediately: he paid his own hotel bill, declined the papal apartments, and asked the crowd to bless him before he blessed them. His emphases were the poor, migrants — his first trip outside Rome was to Lampedusa — and the environment, in the encyclical Laudato si' of 2015. His remark about a gay person seeking God, asking who he was to judge, changed the tone without changing doctrine. He reformed the curia and Vatican finances, permitted blessings for people in same-sex relationships in 2023, and opened synodal consultation to lay people and women. Conservatives regarded much of it as ambiguity. He died in April 2025.
- Lived: 1936 CE – 2025 CE
- Nationality: Argentine
- Roles: pope, cleric
