Pope Francis death: Religious leader dies aged 88

Pope Francis has died at the age of 88. The Pontiff’s death comes after suffering bouts of ill health in the past two years. He was last admitted to hospital on February 14 after experiencing difficulty breathing for several days.

Elected Pope in 2013 after the shock resignation of his predecessor Benedict XVI, Francis was a progressive leader of the Catholic Church, taking a more open approach to women and the LGBTQI+ community. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in December 1936 as Jorge Bergoglio, he first began work as a laboratory assistant and a bouncer, before becoming a Jesuit novice in 1958. After four years as the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Pope John Paul II made Bergoglio a Cardinal, and was considered a frontrunner to replace the former pontiff after his death in 2005.



He was the first Latin American pope, and the first non-European pontiff in more than a millennia. He chose the name “Francis” after Francis of Assisi..