Pope Francis has died, aged 88

French President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to Pope Francis’ “sense for the other, for the most fragile,” and said “great pain” would be felt both in France and internationally at the news, while European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Francis “inspired millions, far beyond the Catholic Church,” adding that his legacy would “continue to guide us toward a more just, peaceful, and compassionate world.”

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Francis “was a pope for the poor, the downtrodden and the forgotten, and Germany’s incoming Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he would be “remembered for his tireless commitment to the weakest in society.” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez similarly praised Francis’ “commitment to peace, social justice, and the most vulnerable,” and his country declared three days of mourning.

US Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic convert, said he was “happy” to have met Francis at the Vatican on Sunday despite his illness, and offered condolences to “the millions of Christians around the world who loved him.”

Many Palestinians saw Francis as a champion of human rights, and “say they’ve lost another leader that was defending them,” Al Jazeera reported: The pontiff used his Easter address to call for a ceasefire and the release of hostages in Gaza, and had reportedly been calling a church in Gaza every day, including during his hospitalization this year.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Francis “rightly saw great importance in fostering strong ties with the Jewish world,” and said he hoped the pontiff’s prayers for peace in the region would soon be answered.

Argentina’s President Javier Milei said that “despite differences” between the two compatriots, it was a “true honor” to know Pope Francis. The pair had not seen eye to eye, with Milei previously accusing the leader of the Catholic Church of being a communist, while Pope Francis had sharply criticized a violent crackdown by the Milei government on protestors last year.

Africa Union Commission Chair Mahmoud Ali Youssouf commended Francis’ “courageous engagement with the African continent” — home to the world’s fastest-growing Catholic population” — and his “unwavering commitment to the promotion of peaceful co-existence.” In his Easter message Sunday, the Pope had called for peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, and South Sudan.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that he was “deeply pained” by the death of Pope Francis, adding that he was a “beacon of compassion” for millions across the world.

The President of predominantly-Catholic East Timor, whom Pope Francis met in the first papal visit in over 30 years in his historic 2024 Asia tour, described his death as a “tremendous loss for the world.”

Born Jorge Bergoglio, Francis was often dubbed the “pontiff of firsts.”

Aside from being the first Latin American pope, Francis was also the first non-European pope since the eighth century, as well as the first to adopt the name of Francis, a nod to the humanitarian Saint Francis of Assisi, and the first Jesuit.

Francis’s time as pope was not without controversy: He took several divisive stances as head of the church, from criticizing capitalism to adopting somewhat progressive, and often conflicting, views of LGBTQ and divorced Catholics.

Francis’ ascension in 2013 ushered in an era of “diplomatic boldness” for the Vatican, The New York Times wrote in 2014, with “a willingness to take risks and insert the Vatican into diplomatic disputes, especially where it can act as an independent broker.” While Francis was generally careful not to take sides in world conflicts, he recently criticized Israel’s military campaign in Gaza; it later emerged that he made daily calls to the sole parish in the enclave, which he continued even in hospital.

In what was one of the longest papal foreign visits in history, Francis visited Southeast Asia and Oceania in Sep. 2024 during a 12-day tour intended to highlight climate change threats in the region, and to emphasize that the Church is “no longer a Eurocentric or Western institution,” CNN’s Vatican correspondent wrote. His visit also reflected the institution’s major tilt to Asia during his pontificate.

Francis’s rise to the papacy was met with some backlash, in part due to his alleged role in Argentina’s so-called “Dirty War” of the 1970s. It is widely believed that the Catholic Church was complicit in military abuses during that period, and Francis later expressed remorse for not doing more for victims of the conflict.