Pope Francis, the 266th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church has died on Monday, April 21, at the age of 88, Vatican confirmed. Pope Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, was the head of the Roman Catholic Church and the sovereign of the Vatican City State. He was unwell for quite a while.
Pope Francis had many firsts to his name, he was the first Pope from the Jesuit order Society of Jesus, the first from the Americas, the first Pope from the Southern Hemisphere, and the first one born or raised outside Europe since the 9th Century Syrian Pope Gregory III.
As Cardinal Bergoglio of Argentina, Pope Francis was already in his seventies when he became Pope in 2013.
Cardinal Farrell announced the news of Pope’s death saying, “Dearest brothers and sisters, with deep sorrow I must announce the death of our Holy Father Francis.” He died at his residence in the Vatican’s Casa Santa Marta.
Francis will also be the first Pope in more than a Century to be buried outside the Vatican. He will be laid to rest in the Basilica of St Mary Major, one of four major papal basilicas in Rome.
