VATICAN CITY - A document containing a brief summary of Jorge Mario Bergoglio's pontificate, placed in a tube and placed in his coffin during the final closing ceremony in St Peter's Basilica on Friday evening, 25 April, has been published. Together with us, pilgrim of hope, guide and companion on the way to the great goal to which we are called, heaven, on April 21, Holy Year 2025, at 7.35 a.m., while the Easter light illuminated the next day's octave, the Monday after Easter, the beloved shepherd of the Church, Francis, departed from this world to the Father. The entire Christian community, especially the poor, praised God for the gift of his ministry, which he carried out with courage and fidelity to the Gospel and to the mystical Bride of Christ.
Francis was the 266th pope. His memory remains at the heart of the Church and of all humanity.
Jorge Mario Bergoglio, elected Pope on 13 March 2013, was born on 17 December 1936 in Buenos Aires, the son of Piedmontese immigrants: his father Mario was an accountant and worked on the railways, while his mother Regina Sivori was a housewife and raised five children. After obtaining a diploma as a chemical technician, he decided to pursue a priestly career, first entering the diocesan seminary and then, on 11 March 1958, entering the Novitiate of the Society of Jesus. He studied the humanities in Chile and, after returning to Argentina in 1963, received a master's degree in philosophy from the College of St. Joseph in San Miguel. He was a professor of literature and psychology at Immacolata College in Santa Fe and at Salvatore College in Buenos Aires. He was ordained a priest on December 13, 1969 by Archbishop Ramón José Castellano and took perpetual vows in the Jesuit Order on April 22, 1973. After serving as novitiate at Villa Barilari in San Miguel, professor at the Faculty of Theology, consultor of the Province of the Society of Jesus and rector of the college, he was appointed provincial of the Jesuits in Argentina on July 31, 1973. After 1986, he spent several years in Germany, where he completed his doctoral thesis, and on his return to Argentina, Cardinal Antonio Quarracino accepted him as his close collaborator. On 20 May 1992, John Paul II appointed him titular bishop of Auca and auxiliary bishop of Buenos Aires. He chose as his episcopal motto Miserando atque eligendo and put the monogram of Christ in the emblem IHSthe symbol of the Society of Jesus. On 3 June 1997, he was elevated to Archbishop Coadjutor of Buenos Aires and, after the death of Cardinal Quarracino, he succeeded him on 28 February 1998 as Archbishop, Primate of Argentina, Ordinary for the Eastern Rite faithful living in that country and Grand Chancellor of the Catholic University. John Paul II named him cardinal in the Consistory on 21 February 2001 with the titular church of St. Robert Bellarmine. In October of the same year, he was appointed Rector General at the tenth ordinary session of the Synod of Bishops.
He was a simple and much loved shepherd in his archdiocese, who walked it cross-country, including on the subway and buses. He lived in an apartment and prepared his own dinner because he felt himself to be one of the people.
He was elected Pope on 13 March 2013 by the cardinals gathered in conclave after the resignation of Benedict XVI and took the name Francis because, following the example of the saint of Assisi, he wanted to take to heart above all the poorest people of the world. From the loggia of blessing, he introduced himself with the words: "Brothers and sisters, good evening! And now let us begin this journey: the bishop and the people. The journey of the Church of Rome, which presides in love over all the Churches. The way of fraternity, love and trust among us." And after bowing his head, he said: "I beg you to pray for me that the Lord may bless me: the prayer of a people who ask a blessing for their bishop." On March 19, the Feast of St. Joseph, he officially began his Petrine ministry.
Francis, who had always been attentive to the least of these and to those rejected by society, decided immediately after his election to live in Domus Sanctae Marthaebecause he couldn't be out of touch with people, and from the first Maundy Thursday he wished to celebrate Mass and the Price of Domini outside the Vatican, each time visiting prisons, centres for the disabled or drug addicts. He advised priests to be always ready to administer the Sacrament of Reconciliation, to have the courage to go out of the sacristies to look for the lost sheep, and to leave the doors of the church open to welcome all those who long to encounter the face of God the Father.
He carried out his Petrine ministry with untiring devotion and to the benefit of dialogue with Muslims and representatives of other religions, whom he sometimes called to prayer meetings and signed joint declarations in favour of consensus between members of different faiths, such as A documentary about human brotherhood signed on 4 February 2019 in Abu Dhabi with Sunni leader al-Tayyib. His love for the last, the old and the little ones led him to launch the World Days of the Poor, Grandparents and Children. He also introduced Divine Word Sunday.
More than any of his predecessors, he has enlarged the College of Cardinals, convening ten consistories at which he has appointed 163 cardinals, 133 of them electors and 30 non-electors, coming from 73 countries, 23 of which have never had a cardinal before. He has called five assemblies of the Synod of Bishops, three ordinary ones on the family, youth and synodality, one extraordinary one again on the family and one special one for the Panamazon area.
He repeatedly spoke out in defense of the innocent. On the evening of 27 March 2020, after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, he decided to pray alone in St Peter's Square, whose columns symbolically embrace Rome and the whole world, for humanity terrified and affected by this unknown disease. The last years of his pontificate have been marked by numerous appeals for peace, against the Third World War waged piecemeal in various countries, especially in Ukraine, but also in Palestine, Israel, Lebanon and Myanmar.
After a ten-day hospitalization for surgery at the Agostino Gemelli Hospital, which began on 4 July 2021, Francis returned to the same hospital on 14 February 2025 for a 38-day stay due to bilateral pneumonia. After returning to the Vatican, he spent the last weeks of his life in the House of Saint Martha, where he devoted himself to his Petrine ministry with unchanged devotion until the end, although he had not yet fully recovered. On Easter Sunday, April 20, 2025, he appeared for the last time in the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica to bestow a solemn blessing Urbi et Orbi.
The magisterium of Pope Francis was very rich. A witness to a moderate and humble style based on openness to missionary activity, apostolic courage and mercy, attentive to the dangers of self-centeredness and spiritual lightening in the Church, the Pope presented his apostolic program in the exhortation Evangelii gaudium (November 24, 2013). The main documents include 4 encyclicals: Lumen fidei (29 June 2013), which deals with the theme of faith in God, Laudato si' (24 May 2015), which addresses the issue of ecology and humanity's responsibility for the climate crisis, Fratelli tutti (3 October 2020) on human brotherhood and social friendship, Dilexit nose (24 October 2024) on reverence for the Sacred Heart of Jesus. He issued 7 apostolic exhortations, 39 apostolic constitutions, numerous apostolic letters, most of which are in the form of motu proprio, 2 bullae on the proclamation of the Holy Years, in addition to the catecheses delivered at general audiences and speeches delivered in various parts of the world. After establishing the Secretariats for Communications and for the Economy and the Dicasteries for the Laity, Family and Life and for the Service of Integral Human Development, he reformed the Roman Curia by issuing the Apostolic Constitution Praedicate the Gospel (19 March 2022). Changed the canonical process for cases of annulment of marriage in the CCEO and CIC (M.P. Mitis et misericors Iesus a Mitis Iudex Dominus Iesus) and tightened legislation concerning offences committed by members of the clergy against minors or vulnerable persons (M.P. Vos estis lux mundi).
Francis left an admirable witness to humanity, holy life and universal fatherhood for all.
CORPUS FRANCISCI P.M.
VIXIT ANNOS LXXXVIII, MENSES IV DIES IV.
ECCLESIAE UNIVERSAE PRAEFUIT
ANNOS XII MENSES I DIES VIII
Semper in Christo vivas, Pater Sancte!
The body of Pope Francis
He lived 88 years, 4 months and 4 days.
He was the head of the whole Church for 12 years, 1 month and 8 days.
Holy Father, live always in Christ!
(Signatures of witnesses of funeral ceremonies...)
ROGITUM OF POPE FRANCIS IN THE ORIGINAL LATIN CAN BE FOUND HERE.
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