Vatican City: Pope Francis, 88, who died on Monday, will land as a radical pope, a champion of the underdog who forged a more compassionate Catholic church while halting more than centuries of dogma.

The Argentinian was known as the “Popular Pope” and he liked to be among his flocks and was popular among faithful groups, despite his painful opposition from traditionalists within the church.

He firmly defended the first pope from the Americas and the Southern Hemisphere, from immigration to communities hit by climate change, which he warned was a crisis caused by humanity.

But when he faced a global sex scandal about the priests being sexually abused, the survivor group said the concrete measures were slow to come.

Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who began his election in March 2013, aspired to become the leader of the Catholic Church.

After Saint Francis of Assisi, the 13th-century mystic, became the first pope named Francis, who gave up his wealth and dedicated his life to the poor.

Three days after he was elected as the 266th Pope, he said: “I want the poor to provide poor people with poor people.”

He is a modest figure, wearing a normal robe, avoiding the luxurious pope palace and making calls, some of whom call widows, rape victims or prisoners.

The former Buenos Aires Archbishop’s ex, who loves football, is also more accessible than his ex, talks with young people about issues ranging from social media to porn and speaks openly about his health.

Francis always left the door like his predecessor, Benedict XVI, who became the first person to resign since the Middle Ages in 2013.

After Benedict’s death in December 2022, Francis became the first pope in modern history to preside over the funeral of the pope.

His health is getting worse and worse, and he suffered bronchitis and knee pain due to colon surgery in 2021 and a hernia in June 2023, forcing him to use a wheelchair.

His fourth hospital stay was over a month in bronchitis in both lungs, his longest, making speculation that he might have fallen.

But he elaborated on the topic of resignation, saying that in February 2023, the Pope’s resignation should not be a “normal thing.”

In his 2024 memoir, he wrote that resignation is only a “distant possibility” in the case of “severe physical disorders.”

Kissing the prisoner’s feet

Before his first Easter in the Vatican, he washed the prisoners’ feet in a Roman prison.

It was the first of a series of powerful symbolic gestures that helped him realize the passionate global admiration of his ex.

Francis chose the Italian island of Lampedusa, the entry point for thousands of immigrants who hope to reach Europe, and criticized the “indifferent globalization.”

He also condemned U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan during his first term, demanding a border wall against Mexico as a non-Christian.

After Trump’s re-election, Francis condemned his planned immigration deportation as a “major crisis” that “will be severely ended.”

In 2016, as the immigration crisis in Europe was at its peak, Francis flew to the Greek island of Lesbos and returned to Rome with three Syrian Muslim families seeking asylum.

In an encounter in February 2016, he also worked to kiss the Orthodox tribe of Moscow to Kirill, the Orthodox tribe of Moscow, and to call on the leading Sunni pastor Sheikh Ahmed Al-Tayeb, in 2019 with Susco.

Francis has reinspired Vatican diplomacy in other ways, helped promote historic reconciliation between the United States and Cuba, and encouraged the peace process in Colombia.

He tried to improve his ties with China by naming the bishops in his historic (but criticized) 2018.

Climate Appeal

Experts believe Francis is in line with the climate of his “Laudato SI” encyclopedia (Laudato SI) Landmark 2015, a call for science-based action on climate change.

He believes that developed economies should blame the imminent environmental disaster and warned in a new 2023 call that some of the damages are “already irreversible.”

The Pope is an advocate of peace, repeatedly condemning weapons manufacturers and arguing that World War III is underway in the midst of countless conflicts seen around the world.

But his interventions were not always well received, and he aroused anger in Kiev after praising the war-hardened Ukraine for “having the courage to raise the white flag and negotiate”.

Francis responds to the stress in a modest room at the Casa Santa Marta hotel in the Vatican by questions from the letter to St. Joseph.

“From the moment I was elected, I had a very special deep sense of peace. It’s never left me,” he said in 2017.

He also likes classical music and tango, stopping in a store in Rome to buy records.

“Who should I judge?”

Francis’ admirers attributed him the perception of the scandal-plagued institutions when he took over, which helped regain the lost believers.

Critics accused him of dangerously tampering with the tenets of Catholic doctrine, and his strong opposition to many reforms.

In 2017, four conservative cardinals posed an unheard of public challenges to his authority, saying his changes sow theoretical confusion among believers.

Francis also promoted reforms within the Vatican, by allowing the civil court to try the cardinal for overhaul to completely reform the banking system of the Holy See.

He also tried to address the priest’s serious destructive problems by meeting the victims and swearing to be responsible for those responsible.

He opened the Vatican archives to the civil court and forced the church authorities to report alleged abuse or cover up its cover.

But critics say his legacy will be a church and still reluctant to hand over the pedophile pastor to the police.

“Growing up on pasta”

Jorge Mario Bergoglio was born on December 17, 1936 in an Italian immigrant family in Flores, a middle-class Buenos Aires.

Biographer Paul Vallely wrote that he was the eldest of five children, who was “born Argentina but grew up on pasta”.

Francis later told about a period of turmoil during his Jesuit training when he was in trouble with a woman he met at a family wedding.

At that time, he survived a near-fatal infection, resulting in some of the lungs being removed. His impaired breathing stimulated his hope of becoming a Japanese missionary.

He was appointed a pastor in 1969 and four years later appointed a provincial or leader of the Jesuits in Argentina.

He mastered the helm of the orders that spanned the country’s military dictatorship, which was difficult.

Critics accused him of betraying two radical priests who were imprisoned and tortured by the regime.

There is no compelling evidence that the claim has emerged, but his leadership over the order was divided, and in 1990 he was demoted and exiled to Argentina’s second largest city, Cordoba.

Then, in his 50s, most biographers believed Bergoglio had experienced a midlife crisis.

He appeared in the mainstream of the Catholic hierarchy to embark on a new career, first as “the bishop of the slum” in Buenos Aires and later as the Pope’s Pope.