Pope Francis has died. The first Jesuit pope and first Latin American pope has died, at age 88, after a 12-year papacy in which he advocated for the rights of migrants and the poor.
"On his first Sunday as pope, greeting the vast crowd in St. Peter's Square and a global audience following on television and social media, Francis introduced a central theme of his pontificate: God's mercy," writes Gerard O'Connell for America magazine, the Jesuit publication. "He had first experienced this mercy in a quasi-mystical way at the age of 17 when he went to confession in a church in Buenos Aires and saw himself as a sinner to whom God showed mercy like Jesus had shown to Matthew, the tax collector—Miserando atque eligendo ('Mercifully, he chose him')….His insistence on mercy throughout his pontificate and his call to priests to always be merciful in the confessional drew opposition from some bishops, priests and others in the church who viewed morality, especially in sexual matters, in black-and-white terms."
At times, Pope Francis earned some Catholics' ire for his controversial decisions to allow priests to bless gay couples and for saying that transgender people can serve as godparents for the baptized and witnesses at weddings (though he cautioned that priests should use discretion if "there is a danger of scandal, undue legitimisation or disorientation in the educational sphere of the church community"). He also, in 2016, "suggested a path for Catholics who had remarried after a divorce to receive Communion under certain circumstances," writes O'Connell, which resulted in outcry from cardinals who asked Pope Francis to publicly respond to their dubia—questions seeking clarification—which he refused to do.
