Pope Francis, in pictures

By Kit Doyle · April 21, 2025

The life and papacy of Pope Francis, in pictures.

Pope Francis arrives for his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, Oct. 12, 2022. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope John Paul II greets the archbishop of Buenos Aires, Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio, at the Vatican on June 29, 1998. (AP Photo/Sambucetti)

Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio celebrates a Mass in honor of Pope John Paul II at the Buenos Aires Cathedral in Buenos Aires, Argentina, April 4, 2005. Bergoglio, who took the name of Pope Francis, was elected on Wednesday, March 13, 2013, as the 266th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko, file)

FILE - Pope Francis waves to the crowd from the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, March 13, 2013. When Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina became Pope Francis, much of his home country celebrated as if it had just won a soccer World Cup championship. A decade later, the first Latin American leader of the Catholic Church generates divided opinions. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, File)

Pope Francis approaches priests with an Argentine flag as he arrives in St. Peter's Square for his inaugural Mass at the Vatican on March 19, 2013. (Photo by Stefano Rellandini/Reuters)

St. Peter's Square during Pope Francis' inaugural Mass on Tuesday, March 19, 2013, at the Vatican. (RNS photo/Andrea Sabbadini)

Pope Francis, surrounded by shells of destroyed churches, leads a prayer for the victims of war at Hosh al-Bieaa Church Square, in Mosul, Iraq, once the de-facto capital of IS, Sunday, March 7, 2021. The long 2014-2017 war to drive IS out left ransacked homes and charred or pulverized buildings around the north of Iraq, all sites Francis visited on Sunday. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Francis talks to the Curia in the Clementina Hall at the Vatican on Dec. 22, 2014. (AP Photo/Andreas Solaro, Pool)

FILE - Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, left, greets Pope Francis prior to the start of the beatification ceremony of Pope Paul VI and a mass for the closing of a two-week synod on family issues, in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Sunday, Oct. 19, 2014. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, File)

Pope Francis prays at the Western Wall, the holiest place where Jews can pray, in the old city of Jerusalem, Israel, Monday, May 26, 2014. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, Pool)

Filipino Cardinal Luis Tagle, left, shows Pope Francis how to give the popular hand sign for "I love you" at the Mall of Asia arena in Manila, Philippines, Friday, Jan. 16, 2015. (AP Photo/Wally Santana)

President Barack Obama and Pope Francis walk along the White House Colonnade on Sept. 23, 2015. (Photo by Pete Souza/The White House)

A nun reflects during a solemn moment as Pope Francis leads a Holy Mass for the Martyrs of Uganda at the area of the Catholic Sanctuary in the Namugongo area of Kampala, Uganda, on Nov. 28, 2015. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Pope Francis shares a reflection during an evening prayer service at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York, Sept. 24, 2015. Pope Francis was on a five-day trip to the USA, which included stops in Washington DC, New York and Philadelphia, after a three-day stay in Cuba. (Photo by Mary Altaffer/Reuters)

Pope Francis embraces two good friends of his traveling with him, Argentine Rabbi Abraham Skorka, left, and Omar Abboud, leader of Argentina's Muslim community, partially seen behind the pope, as he visits the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City, Israel, Monday, May 26, 2014. Both friends joined the pontiff's official delegation for the trip in a sign of interfaith friendship. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, Pool)

Pope Francis speaks in front the Basilica of Saint Mary Ausiliatrice (Mary Help of Christians) during a two-day pastoral visit in Turin, Italy, on June 21, 2015. (Photo by Alessandro Garofalo/Reuters)

Pope Francis, left, is escorted by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, during a visit to the Greek island of Lesbos on April 16, 2016. (Andrea Bonetti/Greek Prime Minister's Office via AP)

Pope Francis attends his general audience in Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican, on November 16, 2016. (Photo by Alessandro Bianchi/Reuters)

Pope Francis kisses a child as he visits the refugee camp of Saint Sauveur in the capital Bangui, Central African Republic, on November 29, 2015. Photo courtesy of REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini *Editors: This photo may only be republished with RNS-JUBILEE-AFRICA, originally transmitted on December 21, 2015.

Pope Francis greets migrants and refugees at the Moria refugee camp near the port of Mytilene, on the Greek island of Lesbos, April 16, 2016. (Filippo Monteforte/Pool Photo via AP)

President Donald Trump stands next to Pope Francis during a private audience at the Vatican on May 24, 2017. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

In this June 28, 2017, file photo, Pope Francis, left, and Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI meet each other on the occasion of the elevation of five new cardinals at the Vatican. (L'Osservatore Romano/Pool photo via AP, File)

Pope Francis is greeted by youth during an audience for middle schools belonging to the "Cavalieri" group, which promotes Christian life for youth, in the Paul VI Hall, at the Vatican, on June 2, 2017. (L' Osservatore Romano via AP, Pool)

Pope Francis speaks to the crew aboard the International Space Station from the Vatican, Thursday, Oct. 26, 2017. Pope Francis' hookup Thursday will mark the second papal phone call to space: Pope Benedict XVI rang the space station in 2011, and peppered its residents with questions about the future of the planet and the environmental risks it faced. (L'Osservatore Romano/Pool Photo via AP)

Pope Francis tries on a cap he was offered as he leaves at the end of his weekly general audience, in St. Peter's square, at the Vatican, Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2018. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Francis blows out a candle atop of a cake he was offered on the eve of his 82nd birthday during an audience with children and family from the dispensary of Santa Marta, a Vatican charity that offers special help to mothers and children in need, in the Paul VI hall at the Vatican, on Dec. 16, 2018. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Pope Francis, lower center, leaves at the end of a canonization ceremony in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican on Oct. 14, 2018. Pope Francis has praised two of the towering figures of the 20th-century Catholic Church as prophets who shunned wealth and looked out for the poor as he canonized the modernizing Pope Paul VI and martyred Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero. Francis declared the two men saints at a Mass in St. Peter's Square before tens of thousands of pilgrims, a handful of presidents and some 5,000 Salvadoran pilgrims who traveled to Rome. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Francis arrives in his popemobile for a Holy Mass at the Shrine of the Mother of God, in Aglona, Latvia, on Sept. 24, 2018. Francis visited Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to mark their 100th anniversaries of independence and to encourage the faith in the Baltics, which saw five decades of Soviet-imposed religious repression and state-sponsored atheism. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

Pope Francis smiles during services at Croke Park, Dublin on Aug. 25, 2018, during the World Meeting of Families 2018. (Photo by Maxwell Photography/WMOF2018)

Pope Francis washes the feet of inmates during his visit to the Regina Coeli detention center in Rome, Thursday, March 29, 2018, where he celebrated the "Missa in Coena Domini". Pope Francis visit to a prison on Holy Thursday to wash the feet of some inmates, stresses in a pre-Easter ritual that a pope must serve society's marginalized and give them hope. (Vatican Media via AP)

Pope Francis arrives on the pope mobile to celebrate Mass at the Las Palmas Air Base in Lima, Peru, Sunday, Jan. 21, 2018. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope Francis lies down in prayer during the Good Friday Passion of Christ Mass inside St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican on March 30, 2018. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Francis is silhouetted during a private audience at the Vatican on Dec. 14, 2019. (Yara Nardi/Pool photo via AP)

Students practice flipping boards with photos to reveal a full-mosaic portrait of Pope Francis before a Holy Mass at National Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2019. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Pope Francis leaves the morning session of the Amazon synod, at the Vatican, Saturday, Oct. 12, 2019. Pope Francis is holding a three-week meeting on preserving the rainforest and ministering to its native people as he fended off attacks from conservatives who are opposed to his ecological agenda. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

A man lifts a giant mask of Pope Francis off his head as he waits outside the Apostolic Nunciature Embassy of the Holy See in Bangkok on Nov. 20, 2019. Pope Francis toured Thailand and Japan on a trip, part of a mission to boost the morale of those countries’ tiny minority Catholic communities. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Pope Francis arrives for his weekly general audience, in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2019. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Francis prays during his weekly general audience, at the Vatican, on Sept. 11, 2019. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Francis speaks to indigenous groups in Puerto Maldonado, Peru, on Jan. 19, 2018. Standing with thousands of indigenous Peruvians, Francis declared the Amazon the "heart of the church" and called for a three-fold defense of its life, land and cultures. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope Francis is framed by cellphones as he arrives for his weekly general audience in the Pope Paul VI Hall at the Vatican on Jan. 9, 2019. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Francis greets Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, the grand imam of Egypt's Al-Azhar, after an interreligious meeting at the Founder's Memorial in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on Feb. 4, 2019. Pope Francis has asserted in the first-ever papal visit to the Arabian Peninsula that religious leaders have a duty to reject all war and commit themselves to dialogue. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Flanked by Panama's President Juan Carlos Varela, right, and first lady Lorena Castillo, Pope Francis arrives at the foreign ministry headquarters Palacio Bolivar, in Panama City, Thursday, Jan. 24, 2019. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

In this Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2020 file photo, Pope Francis puts on his face mask as he attends an inter-religious ceremony for peace in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Aracoeli, in Rome. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, File)

Pope Francis delivers his blessing from inside the Apostolic library at the Vatican on March 15, 2020, to an empty St. Peter’s Square. The pope praised people who could risk contagion to help the poor and the homeless even as fears of coronavirus spread prompts ever more countries to restrict ways of everyday life. (Vatican News via AP)

The Patriarch of the Syriac Orthodox Church, Moran Mor Ignatius Aphrem II, second from left, the head of the Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Aram I, third from left, Pope Francis, fourth from left, Cardinal Bechara Boutros al-Rahi, firfth from left, Patriarch of Antioch and All the East for the Syriac Catholic Church, Ignatius Youssef III Younan, right, arrive in St. Peter's Basilica to attend a prayer for Lebanon at the Vatican, Thursday, July 1, 2021. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Pope Francis meets Spider-Man, who presents him with his mask, at the end of his weekly general audience with a limited number of faithful in the San Damaso Courtyard at the Vatican, Wednesday, June 23, 2021. The masked man works with sick children in hospitals. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

President Joe Biden, left, shakes hands with Pope Francis as they meet at the Vatican, Friday, Oct. 29, 2021. (Photo by Vatican Media)

Pope Francis celebrates the Easter Vigil in St. Peter's Basilica as coronavirus pandemic restrictions stay in place for a second year running, at the Vatican, Saturday, April 3, 2021. (Remo Casilli/Pool photo via AP)

Pope Francis arrives to open the Holy Door of St. Mary in Collemaggio Basilica and start the jubilee of forgiveness, in L'Aquila, central Italy, Sunday, Aug. 28, 2022. Pope Francis will be the first pope since Celestine V to open this Holy Door, the first in history, established with the Bull of Forgiveness of 29 September 1294 by Pope Celestine V. (AP Photo/Riccardo De Luca)

Pope Francis shows a flag that was brought to him from Bucha, Ukraine, during his weekly general audience in the Paul VI Hall, at the Vatican, April 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

FILE - Pope Francis meets a group of nuns during his weekly general audience in the Pope Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, on Aug. 30, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, File)

Pope Francis puts on an Indigenous headdress during a meeting with Indigenous communities, including First Nations, Métis and Inuit, at Our Lady of Seven Sorrows Catholic Church in Maskwacis, near Edmonton, Canada, Monday, July 25, 2022. Pope Francis had a "penitential" visit to Canada to beg forgiveness from survivors of the country's residential schools, where Catholic missionaries contributed to the "cultural genocide" of generations of Indigenous children by trying to stamp out their languages, cultures and traditions. Francis visited the cemetery at the former residential school in Maskwacis. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Pope Francis presides over the First Vespers and Te Deum, the rite of thanksgiving for the end of the year, in Saint Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Sunday, Dec. 31, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Francis arrives for his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, March 8, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, File)

A priest holds a sacrament bowl showing a photograph of Pope Francis at a Holy Mass at the John Garang Mausoleum in Juba, South Sudan, Sunday, Feb. 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Pope Francis, right, presides over the funeral Mass of Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Jan. 5, 2023. (Vatican Media)

Pope Francis prays in front of a Nativity scene crafted in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, as he arrives for a meeting with the donors of the fir tree set up in St. Peter's Square as a Christmas tree and those who have crafted the life-size Nativity scene at the tree's feet, in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Francis is greeted by gondoliers upon his arrival in Venice, Italy, Sunday, April 28, 2024. The Pontiff arrived for his first-ever visit to the lagoon town including the Vatican pavilion at the 60th Biennal of Arts. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Cardinals attend a Mass presided by Pope Francis in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

East Timorese crowd Tasitolu park for Pope Francis' Mass in Dili, East Timor, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati)

Pope Francis looks at American comedians Stephen Colbert, Chris Rock and Jimmy Fallon, among others, as he meets with more than 100 comedians from around the world at the Vatican on June 14, 2024, encouraging them to cheer people up and help people see reality with all its contradictions. (Photo by Simone Risoluti/Vatican Media)

Pope Francis washes and kisses the feet of 12 women inmates of the Rebibbia prison in the outskirts of Rome on Holy Thursday, March 28, 2024, a ritual meant to emphasize his vocation of service and humility. (Photo by Vatican Media)

Pope Francis waves to the faithful from his popemobile at the end of a weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square, at the Vatican, April 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope Francis is joined by children dressed with costumes inspired by nativity characters during a Mass in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican on New Year's Day, Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

A woman kneels at the foot of a statue of St. John Paul II outside the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome, Feb. 16, 2025, where Pope Francis was hospitalized Friday after a weeklong bout of bronchitis worsened. Francis is receiving drug therapy for a respiratory tract infection that made impossible for him to attend the traditional Sunday public blessing after the noon Angelus prayer. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope Francis leaves the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome, Sunday, March 23, 2025, where he was admitted on Feb. 14 for bilateral pneumonia. (AP Photo/Marco Ravagli)

Pope Francis arrives at the end of the Mass on Palm Sunday in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Pope Francis tours St. Peter's Square in his popemobile after bestowing the Urbi et Orbi (Latin for to the city and to the world) blessing at the end of the Easter Mass, which was presided over by Cardinal Angelo Comastri, in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Sunday, April 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

A photograph of the late Pope Francis is placed at Saint Anthony Catholic Church in Istanbul, Turkey, after the announcement of his death, Monday, April 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)