One day after blessing a crowd in Vatican City on Easter Sunday, the Vatican announced that Pope Francis had died at 88. His death marks the end of a 12-year leadership of the Catholic Church.

During his tenure, Pope Francis pursued reforms in the Church to widen its reach and address longstanding failures in church governance and sexual abuse by clergy members. He drew on his faith to advocate for environmental conservation. 

“It struck me as poignant that he passed away on the Monday after Easter,” said David Albertson, an associate professor of religion who is Catholic. “I’m sure he had a desire to be as present as he could with the faithful over the Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the Easter liturgies. And as you can see from all the outpourings around the world in the media, he was a significant hope.”

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Pope Francis — born on Dec. 17, 1936, as Jorge Mario Bergoglio to an Italian father and Argentinian mother — grew up in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was ordained a priest in 1969 and was appointed as a bishop in 1992. 

In 2013, he was elected as the first pope from the Americas. When he was announced as the next pope, he emerged from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica to give the traditional blessing of a new pope, but in a break from tradition, he first asked the crowd to pray for him. 

The Church had been embroiled in controversy at the start of Pope Francis’ tenure as more accounts emerged in the church’s decades-long failure to address sexual abuse of children and nuns by clergy members. At first, Pope Francis drew sharp criticism for failing to act decisively, but he has since then convened meetings and helped implement rules with heavier penalties against abusers. However, BishopAccountability and other advocacy groups argue that the efforts have not gone far enough. 

He quickly garnered a reputation for rejecting certain traditions in favor of a relatively modest life, opting to live at Vatican City’s guest house rather than the Apostolic Palace. During his papacy, Pope Francis made environmental conservation a priority, arguing in a letter published in 2015 titled “Laudato si’” that protecting the environment extends from a desire to honor God’s creation. Albertson said the papal name, taken after St. Francis of Assisi, reflects the pope’s desire to protect the environment.

“For Catholics, when he chose the name Francis, it connote[d] two different things at the beginning of his papacy,” Albertson said. “In retrospect, it’s clear that he wanted to stay close [to] nature and the animals like St. Francis. But St. Francis, in the 12th century, also began with his own vocation, with an experience of Jesus telling him to ‘rebuild my church.’”

Pope Francis has found himself at odds with the Trump administration over the president’s efforts to ramp up deportations. In February, the White House cut funding to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops for its refugee resettlement program.

Days before he died, Pope Francis spoke with Vice President JD Vance, a fellow Catholic, amid the pope’s renewed criticism of the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration.

Tricia Bruce, a sociologist affiliated with the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies at USC, said she will remember Pope Francis for his efforts to expand the Church’s reach.

“He had a way of just feeling so warm to so many people, almost wherever they were, whatever they were thinking and feeling,” Bruce said. “Pope Francis was really like a warm hug from an uncle or something.”

The Catholic Church has historically excluded women from meaningful roles in its synods — conventions typically reserved for high-ranking clergy — but in the most recent synod, Pope Francis appointed Bruce and several other women to contribute their perspectives.

“He certainly had the facility in theology and doctrine, and also a beautifully eloquent way of speaking to it,” Bruce said. “He [also] invited people to the table who normally are excluded from the table, and wanted to be attentive to those on the margins.”

In a decision that drew controversy from some Catholics, Pope Francis had also called for clergy members to bless same-sex couples and divorced people. Albertson said the decision was not a change in the Church’s doctrine, but rather a change in approach. 

“He moved a lot of those issues out of simply a matter of doctrine to also a matter of pastoral care, or how the local leader takes care of people in their concrete lives,” Albertson said.

Jeryn Dizon, a junior majoring in health and the human sciences, was in the fourth grade when Pope Francis was chosen. He said he remembers the teachers in his Catholic elementary school would turn on the televisions with coverage of the papal conclave — the process in which Catholic cardinals choose the next pope — each morning. Since then, he has appreciated the Pope’s emphasis on outreach to the youth.

“[He was] really emphasizing all the gifts we do have, especially in terms of social media and making sure we just use our platform correctly,” Dizon said.

The USC Caruso Catholic Center held a meditation and prayer in honor of the pope Monday evening before Mass. A group of cardinals will soon convene to discuss funeral plans. 

Before his death, Pope Francis requested to forgo some of the traditional embellishments of a pope’s funeral. He asked to be placed in a wooden casket, in a tomb only marked with the inscription “Franciscus.”