Pope Francis, head of the Roman Catholic Church, died on April 21, 2025. He was 88. He is pictured here at the United Nations General Assembly during a 2015 visit to New York, New York. Photo: Dennis Van Tine via AP
[Episcopal News Service] Pope Francis, who led the Roman Catholic Church and its 1.3 billion members worldwide since 2013, died the morning of April 21 at his residence in the Vatican’s Casa Santa Marta. He was 88.
A day earlier, from a balcony at St. Peter’s Basilica, seated in a wheelchair, Francis blessed a crowd of tens of thousands gathered in the square to celebrate Easter. He spent Holy Thursday with inmates at a Rome prison, one he’d previously visited to perform the washing of the feet.
The papacy will remain vacant until a conclave convenes in Rome to elect the new pontiff.
“My heart is heavy at the death of our brother in Christ, Pope Francis,” Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe said in an April 21 statement. “Throughout his life and ministry, he has been a witness for the Gospel and a champion for the poor and marginalized. Especially in this season, I give thanks for his powerful advocacy on behalf of migrants and refugees.
“Pope Francis, who was the first Latin American pope, understood these siblings in Christ are never at the edges, fearful and alone. As he once wrote, ‘In the faces of the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the sick, strangers and prisoners, we are called to see the face of Christ who pleads with us to help.’”
Francis, a Jesuit, was known for his humility and for standing with people living outside the mainstream, those excluded from social, economic and political systems, including the poor and migrants, as well as for his steadfast commitment to the environment.
The Rt. Rev. Anthony Poggo, the Anglican Communion’s secretary general, expressed the communion’s appreciation for the pope’s leadership of the Catholic Church and his witness to the wider world.
“Throughout his papacy, Pope Francis has consistently demonstrated a profound commitment to evangelization, to show justice, mercy, love and reconciliation. His words and actions have touched the hearts of millions, transcending the boundaries of Christian divisions and inspiring people of all faiths to join hands in pursuit of a more just and compassionate world,” Poggo said in an April 21 statement.
“The late pope’s unwavering dedication to the plight of the poor, the refugee and the vulnerable has been an inspiration to us all. His calls for global solidarity, for the protection of our common home and for the pursuit of peace have resonated deeply within the hearts of people across continents and cultures, especially in my home country of South Sudan.”
Francis called repeatedly for an end to civil war in South Sudan, last visiting in 2023 with the archbishop of Canterbury and the Church of Scotland’s moderator.
That first-ever, historic visit bore “witness to his willingness to work with the Anglican Communion for the sake of peace and reconciliation in a world torn by war and violence,” the Rt. Rev. Ian Ernest, former director of the Anglican Centre in Rome and the personal representative of the archbishop of Canterbury to the Holy See, told Episcopal News Service.
Throughout his papacy, Francis remained true to his writings and acted with a compassionate and understanding heart, and he will be remembered as an imitator of Jesus, Ernest said, adding it was “his Christ-like attitude that enabled him to emerge as the most respected world leader, transcending the frontiers of all religions.”
Francis was born Dec. 17, 1936, as Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires, Argentina; he was one of five children born to Italian immigrants. He studied chemistry and worked as a chemist before he entered the Society of Jesus as a novice in 1958. Before ordination to the priesthood, he earned a philosophy degree and taught literature and psychology. He also earned a degree in theology; in 1969, he was ordained a priest and made his final profession with the Jesuits in 1973.
He became a bishop, cardinal and then archbishop of Buenos Aires. The College of Cardinals gathered in a papal conclave on March 12, 2013, and elected Bergoglio pope the following day. He chose to be called Francis, the first pontiff to take his papal name from St. Francis of Assisi, who dedicated his life to piety, the poor and rebuilding the church.
“With millions around the world, I mourn the death of His Holiness Pope Francis and give thanks for his extraordinary ministry,” said the Rt. Rev. Anthony Ball, director of the Anglican Centre in Rome, in a statement. “His tireless efforts to work to promote the flourishing of the most marginalized, to reach out to those who feel forgotten and to advocate for the proper stewardship of God’s creation are amongst the charisms that have led him to be held in such affection.”
Francis challenged Christians to examine the places where practices and governmental and institutional policies did not align with the Gospel’s call to respect the dignity of every human being, “and to work to close the gaps,” the Rt. Rev. Mark Edington, bishop in charge of the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe, said in a written statement.
“We in the Convocation saw Pope Francis not only as a preeminent Christian leader, but as the bishop of Rome as a neighbor and friend,” he said. “Through the work of the Anglican Centre in Rome, we know the blessing of close and cordial contacts with the Vatican, and throughout his papacy we have been deeply touched by the pope’s eager engagement with the Anglican Communion.”
Saint Paul’s Within the Walls, the Episcopal church in Rome, planned to hold a Requiem service of Evening Prayer for Francis’ repose on April 21. Edington called on the convocation’s churches across Europe to give thanks for Francis’ life and ministry on the second Sunday of Easter, April 27.
“May his soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed, rest in peace, and may light perpetual shine upon him,” he said.
St. Paul’s Within the Walls, the first non-Catholic church built within Rome’s ancient walls, is also home to the Joel Nafuma Refugee Center, which serves asylum-seekers, migrants and refugees.
Francis stood steadfast alongside refugees and migrants. In one of his last meetings, the pope, on April 20, while Easter Mass was happening, met with U.S. Vice President JD Vance, who takes a hardline approach to immigration and who earlier this year criticized European leaders for not doing more to stop illegal immigration. The pope previously rebuked Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, over his attempt to use Catholic theology in justification of the Trump administration’s mass deportation plans.
From the start of his papacy, Francis decried the conditions migrants flee and their suffering, and he criticized the world’s lack of response and indifference. In solidarity, for his first papal visit outside Rome, he traveled to Lampedusa, a gateway island for migrants entering Italy, where he preached a sermon calling attention to the dangers faced by migrants crossing the Mediterranean and the lives of those lost at sea.
In the days before his February hospitalization, Francis sent a letter to U.S. bishops criticizing the Trump administration’s mass deportation policies and calling for compassion, solidarity and the protection of human dignity.
Francis was hospitalized on Feb. 14 for complications of bronchitis, which progressed to double pneumonia. During his 38-day hospitalization, he experienced multiple respiratory crises. Catholics – many on pilgrimage in Rome for the jubilee, a time of special solemnity observed by Catholics every 25 years – gathered nightly in Vatican City’s St. Peter’s Square to pray the rosary for the pope’s health. He was released from the hospital on March 23.
The pope invited Ernest, who retired as director of the Anglican Centre in January, to the Synod of Bishops, an advisory body to the pope, in 2023 and 2024, and last year, he received top Anglican leaders in Rome, when they met there for the Primates’ Meeting. “Those were signs of his longing to give substance to the formal dialogue between our two churches,” Ernest told ENS. He moved “beyond theological and doctrinal discussions in order to give to our relationship a new dimension, one founded on mutual recognition and friendship.”
In October 2023, in a step forward for Catholic women, Francis opened the vote to them for the first time in a Synod of Bishops, which brought church leaders and laypeople together to discuss the challenges facing the church. Earlier this year, in January, he appointed the first woman prefect to lead a major Vatican office.
“Pope Francis showed us what it means to follow Jesus with courage and compassion. He broke down walls of division, lifted up the voices of those not typically heard from—especially laypeople and women—and called the global church to embody mercy and justice,” House of Deputies President Julia Ayala Harris told ENS. “His legacy will continue to inspire all who believe that love must be bold, and faith must act.”
And in marked contrast to his predecessors, Francis also worked to normalize acceptance of LGBTQ+ Catholics.
“In 12 years as the Roman Catholic pontiff, Pope Francis transformed our theology of the environment and recognized the need for LGBTQ+ people to feel heard, seen and included in their church,” Rowe said in his statement. “We are likewise grateful for his emphasis on reconciliation and ecumenical dialogue, in which our church has participated through the Anglican-Roman Catholic Theological Consultation in the United States of America.”
The consultation is a long-standing dialogue between the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and The Episcopal Church.
From the start of his papacy, the pope followed “his own rule book” and recognized symbolism, Tennessee Bishop John Bauerschmidt, who serves as the Episcopal co-chair of the consultation, told ENS.
“I’m reminded of one of the symbolic gestures of his, right at the beginning of his pontificate, the Maundy Thursday washing of feet. … He was at a prison and washed the feet of both men and women. That was, I think, a significant gesture of a ministry to the marginalized that didn’t proceed strictly by rubric. [He] extended himself in a way that was, I think, symbolic and significant at the same time.”
-Lynette Wilson is a reporter and managing editor of Episcopal News Service. She is based in Rome, Italy.