We should not play games with the martyrdom of this people. We have to help them resolve things [...] I see now that some countries are moving backwa… - Pope Francis

About Pope Francis

Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was the head of the Roman Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2013. Francis was the first pope to be a member of the Society of Jesus, the first from the Americas, the first from the Southern Hemisphere, and the first pope from outside Europe since Gregory III, a Syrian who reigned in the 8th century. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, as the son of Italian parents, Bergoglio worked briefly as a chemical technician and nightclub bouncer before entering the seminary. He was ordained a priest in 1969, and from 1973 to 1979 was Argentina's Provincial Superior of the Society of Jesus. On being elected Pope on 13 March 2013, he chose the papal name Francis in honor of Saint Francis of Assisi. Francis maintained the traditional views of the Church regarding abortion, clerical celibacy, and the ordination of women, but initiated dialogue on the possibility of deaconesses and made women full members of dicasteries in the Roman Curia. He maintained the Church should be more open and welcoming for members of the LGBT community, and favors legal recognition of same-sex couples. Francis was an outspoken critic of unbridled capitalism and free market economics, consumerism, and overdevelopment, and advocates taking action on climate change, a focus of his papacy with the promulgation of Laudato si'. In international diplomacy, he helped to restore full diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba and supported the cause of refugees during the European and Central American migrant crises.

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