Pope Francis died at the age of 88,
one day after being present at the
Holy Week Mass. The World, and
especially Vatican City, are grieving the
death of their Spiritual leader – whilst
deciding who will be the one to succeed
him.
Jorge Mario Bergoglio, more commonly
known under the name Pope Francis,
was the head of the Catholic Church
from March 13th, 2013, to April 21st,
2025. Being the 1st Pope coming from

the American Continent, he was there-
fore also the 1st South American to

ever be elected. Additionally, he was
also the 1st Jesuit to become pope – a
branch of the catholic church which

emphasized education and moral dis-
cipline. They are heavily known for

their missionary travels, expanding
Christianity to Africa, the Americas, and
southern Asia, with Pope Francis being
no exception.
Now, understand that the Argentine
Pope began his papacy with heavy
reforms to the church. In fact, one of
his biggest focuses was to reshape the
Church into becoming a more open

and forgiving one. Enhancing the ac-
ceptance of the LGBTQ+ community,

stating, “Who am I to judge?” made
the Catholic Church more flexible and
clement. Not only that, but another
major reform was one in the Vatican
Bank, aiming to reduce government
corruption.
Pope Francis also fought for current
problems such as climate change,
even writing a best-selling book called
“Laudato si”, criticising consumerism
and environmental degradation and
global warming, calling for all people
of the world to take “swift and unified

global action”. The Pope also reported-
ly helped during the fight for women’s

rights, which he ultimately failed to in-
corporate due to the lack of power they

have inside the Church.
Pope Francis, head of the Catholic
Church, and Ahmed Al-Tayeb, Grand
Imam of Al-Azhar, issued and signed
the Document on Human Fraternity
for World Peace and Living Together,
in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates,
back in 2019. Despite failing to ensure
peace between the Hamas-Israel war in
the last years of his papacy, being able
to maintain hope and comparisons for

both the war in Ukraine and the Israe-
li-Palestinian war is surely an achieve-
ment.

One of the most relevant achievements

he did during his papacy was, with-
out a doubt, Pope Francis’ 0 tolerance

against sexual abuse. To have some
context, during the 20th century, the

Catholic Church was accused of sev-
eral sexual abuse cases. Confirmed

in most of the cases, these tragedies
were disturbingly common in Religious
“Boys-only” Schools, with some of the
most important cases being the ones

from the Priest Marcial Marciel, found-
er of the Legion of Christ.

I firmly believe that his ideas transcend-
ed generations and made an outdated

church more inclusive and relevant in
this ever-changing world.