Pope Francis Dies at 88

 

Pope Francis Dies at 88

His groundbreaking pontificate worked to make the Catholic Church more inclusive. Cardinals will now decide whether to continue his approach or restore more doctrinaire leadership.

Jason Horowitz Reporting from Rome

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/04/21/world/pope-francis-updates-vatican

 

Here’s the latest.

• Pope Francis has died, the Vatican announced on Monday, ending a groundbreaking pontificate that sought, however haltingly, to reshape the Roman Catholic Church into a more inclusive institution. His death will set off mourning around the world and deliberations and machinations to choose a successor.
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• The absence of Francis, a humble champion of the poor, creates a vacuum in the leadership of more than one billion Catholics, and leaves cardinals with a critical decision: whether to choose a new pope who will follow his welcoming, global approach or to restore the more doctrinaire path of his predecessors.
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• After early missteps, Francis made considerable strides in addressing the church’s sexual abuse crisis and tackled its murky financial culture. His remarkable global stature early in his pontificate — when liberal leaders around the world likewise emphasized climate change, migrants’ rights and income equality — gave way to a populist period when he sometimes seemed a solitary voice. But he never changed his approach.
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• Francis believed that the church’s future depended on going to the margins to embrace the faithful in the modern world rather than offering a cloister away from it. The coming days will determine how deep his support truly runs.
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Here’s what else to know:

• Papal legacy: Francis created thousands of bishops and appointed more than half of the College of Cardinals, often choosing prelates who shared his priorities of being close to the poor, welcoming the marginalized and moving issues like climate change to the forefront.
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• A persistent crisis: Despite Francis’ work to address the sexual abuse crisis in the church it haunted his papacy, just as it plagued the papacies of his predecessors.
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• Choosing a new pope: The death of a pope sets in motion a chain of rituals and procedures, many of which have remained unchanged for centuries and were drafted — and refined — to ensure secrecy and an orderly transition.