VATICAN CITY—Pope Francis, who sought to refocus the Catholic Church on promoting social and economic justice rather than traditional moral teachings but presided over growing divisions in the church and struggled with the lingering scandal of clerical sex abuse, has died, the Vatican said. He was 88.
The pope’s death came after he spent weeks in the hospital earlier this year to treat a serious bout of pneumonia. His health remained fragile after he returned to his residence in the Vatican.
Jorge Mario Bergoglio was a pope of firsts. He was the first pope from the Americas, the first from the Jesuit order, and the first to take the name Francis. He was the first in almost six centuries to become pope after his predecessor resigned. Francis also gave the papacy a less formal and more approachable image by spurning regal attire, riding in compact cars and making headlines with blunt comments at news conferences.
He was openly political, urging grassroots activists around the world to bridge the gap between rich and poor while calling on wealthier countries to better protect the environment. As Western politicians moved to close their borders to refugees, Francis advocated for them and other migrants. In February 2025, he criticized President Trump’s plan for mass deportations.
He maintained a neutral stance on the war in Ukraine, deploring the suffering of Ukrainians but avoiding direct condemnation of Russia and suggesting that the West had provoked the conflict.
Francis’ policy of playing down traditional church teachings on marriage and homosexuality—his most famous single remark was a rhetorical question about gay priests: “Who am I to judge?”—cheered liberals while distressing conservative Catholics, including many bishops in the U.S. But he stopped short of relaxing rules on celibacy for Roman Catholic priests, disappointing progressive bishops in Latin America and elsewhere who argued that it would remedy shortages of clergy.
Francis endorsed zero tolerance for priests who sexually abuse children, but victims and their supporters said he didn’t do enough to tackle the problem. In the biggest scandal of his pontificate, a former Vatican diplomat publicly accused him of turning a blind eye to sexual misconduct by a U.S. cardinal and called on him to resign.
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