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Catholics around the globe are mourning the loss of Pope Francis. Vatican officials announced that Pope Francis died early on Easter Monday at the age of 88. “Dearest brothers and sisters, with deep sorrow I must announce the death of our Holy Father Francis,” Cardinal Kevin Farrell, who is serving as Camerlengo of the Catholic Church until the election of a new pope, shared.

He continued, “[T]he Bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the house of the Father. His entire life was dedicated to the service of the Lord and of His Church. He taught us to live the values of the Gospel with fidelity, courage, and universal love, especially in favour of the poorest and most marginalised.” Farrell added, “With immense gratitude for his example as a true disciple of the Lord Jesus, we commend the soul of Pope Francis to the infinite merciful love of the One and Triune God.”

History of Respiratory Illnesses

The pope’s death was not entirely unexpected. On February 14, he was hospitalised with a lung infection, eventually diagnosed by doctors as double pneumonia. He spent 38 days in the hospital. From a young age, Pope Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, has suffered various respiratory illnesses, having had infected lung tissue surgically removed in his 20s.

In 2022 and 2023, surgeries and hospitalisations prompted rumours that Pope Francis might resign the papacy, as the late Pope Benedict XVI had done before him. However, Pope Francis dismissed the idea of resigning and insisted that he would remain pontiff until his death, as has been tradition for popes.

Pope Francis: Mixed Reception

Born in 1936 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Pope Francis became the first pope from the Western hemisphere, the first Jesuit pope, and the first non-European pope in over 1,300 years when he was elected to the papacy in 2013, following Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation.

His pontificate has been a controversial one, garnering outrage from both progressive and traditionalist circles. Although in his speaking and his writing, Pope Francis has laid great emphasis on the mercy of God and the necessity of a personal relationship with Christ, he has been accused of harshly criticising conservative and traditionalist ideas, practices, and organisations while largely giving progressive ones a pass.

For example, the late pope has strongly criticised the immigration policies of President Donald Trump, calling mass deportations a “disgrace” and even publicly rebuking Vice President J.D. Vance, a convert to Catholicism, for citing the Church’s social and moral theology in support of border security.

Although Pope Francis has been a vocal opponent of abortion, comparing the practice to hiring “a hitman,” he was less openly critical of the pro-abortion policies of former president Joe Biden, a self-described Catholic, than he has been of the immigration policies of the Trump-Vance administration. In a Spanish-language television interview, for instance, Pope Francis condemned Biden’s pro-abortion positions as “inconsistent” with Catholic teaching but said that he would not deny Holy Communion to Biden and would instead leave Biden’s parish priest to discuss Catholic moral teaching and abortion with Biden.

Under Pope Francis’s leadership, the Vatican has also issued numerous documents considered morally ambiguous by even high-ranking Catholic cardinals. While the recent “Dignitas Infinita” reiterated and reinforced longstanding Catholic moral teaching on abortion, contraception, homosexual acts, and the more novel issue of transgenderism, the prior publication “Fiducia Supplicans,” regulating the blessing of same-sex couples, proved more controversial. The document technically banned the blessing of actual same-sex unions but allowed individuals engaged in a same-sex union to request blessings for themselves, individually or as a pair, leading to much confusion and, eventually, abuse of the document’s provisions.

The Next Pope

As of the time of writing, no date has been formally announced for Pope Francis’s Requiem Mass. That Mass will be followed by nine days of mourning, with a memorial Mass celebrated on each day. Following the death of a pope, the College of Cardinals convenes in Rome and begins the process to select the next pope.

Typically, the deceased pontiff’s funeral is held four to six days after his death, and the conclave, the secret meeting of cardinals to choose the next pope, is begun 15 days after the pope’s death. The conclave is a process wherein all cardinals under the age of 80 gather together and lock themselves inside the Sistine Chapel; they do not emerge until they have selected a new pope. The pope is elected by a two-thirds majority of cardinals, a majority which may take days to achieve.

Cardinals are priests or bishops elevated to the College of Cardinals by the pope. There are currently 252 cardinals — 41 of whom were appointed by Pope John Paul II, 62 of whom were appointed by Pope Benedict XVI, and 149 of whom were appointed by Pope Francis — but only 135 are eligible to vote.

Of the cardinal electors (the cardinals eligible to vote), five were appointed by Pope John Paul II, 22 by Pope Benedict XVI, and 108 by Pope Francis. Those over the age of 80 are permitted to take part in the preparations for the conclave, even though they cannot vote, but some restrictions have been put in place by Pope Francis, barring many cardinals appointed by his predecessors from wielding their influence during those preparations.

While the cardinals are selecting a new pope, black smoke famously comes out of the Sistine Chapel’s chimney. Once a new pope has been chosen, the smoke turns white, signalling the election of a new pope.

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Originally published at The Washington Stand. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.