Vatican announces the death of Pope Francis

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Pope Francis, the first Latin American leader of the Roman Catholic Church, has died at the age of 88, the Vatican has said.

"This morning at 07:35 local time (05:35 GMT) the Bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the home of the Father," Cardinal Kevin Farrell said in the statement, which was published by the Vatican on its Telegram channel.

His death comes after he appeared at the Vatican's St Peter's Square on Sunday to wish "Happy Easter" to thousands of worshippers.

Pope Francis was discharged from hospital last month after five weeks of treatment for an infection that led to double pneumonia.

A convalescing Pope Francis appeared on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica to celebrate Easter services on Sunday, as a cheering and emotional crowd of thousands gathered at the Vatican’s St. Peter’s Square.

The crowd erupted when the pontiff, 88, appeared in his wheelchair, looking out over a square awash in daffodils and tulips.

“Dear brothers and sisters, happy Easter,” he said, waving and giving his blessing.

On Sunday morning, Francis held a brief private meeting with Vice President JD Vance, who is Catholic. The meeting lasted a few minutes, the Vatican said, long enough for them to exchange Easter wishes.

The pontiff did not lead the Easter Mass, with Cardinal Angelo Comastri, a retired archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica, taking his place and delivering the homily that Francis has prepared.

But after the Mass ended, the pope appeared to rapturous applause as a military band kicked off a round of the Holy See and Italian anthems. Diego Ravelli, master of ceremonies, then delivered the Urbi et Orbi papal address.

During the address, Francis made a strong appeal for peace around the world, particularly in Gaza, where he said “terrible conflict continues to cause death and destruction,” and called for a ceasefire and the release of all hostages.

The pontiff offered prayer to Christian communities in Ukraine, Israel, Lebanon and Syria, and mentioned the ongoing conflict and suffering in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Sudan, South Sudan, Myanmar, the Sahel and Horn of Africa regions, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“I would like all of us to hope anew and to revive our trust in others, including those who are different than ourselves, or who come from distant lands, bringing unfamiliar customs, ways of life and ideas,” the statement said. “For all of us are children of God!”

After the service, Francis took to his open-topped popemobile to greet crowds in the square, blessing babies and children during the drive.

It would've put a damper on Easter if he had died yesterday. Rather apparently he was energetic yesterday. RIP.

I'm a Lutheran, but I sincerely liked the late Pope. I just fear the church's reactionaries are rubbing their hands together in anticipation of turning back the clock.

World leaders and rank-and-file Catholic faithful bade farewell to Pope Francis in a funeral Saturday that highlighted his concern for people on the peripheries and reflected his wish to be remembered as a simple pastor. Though presidents and princes attended the Mass in St. Peter’s Square, prisoners and migrants welcomed Francis’ coffin at his final resting place in a basilica across town.

According to Vatican estimates, some 250,000 people flocked to the funeral Mass at the Vatican and 150,000 more lined the motorcade route through downtown Rome to witness the first funeral procession for a pope in a century. They clapped and cheered “Papa Francesco” as his simple wooden coffin traveled aboard a modified popemobile to St. Mary Major Basilica, some 6 kilometers (3.5-miles) away.

As bells tolled, the pallbearers brought the coffin past several dozen migrants, prisoners and homeless people holding white roses outside the basilica. Once inside, the pallbearers stopped in front of the icon of the Virgin Mary that Francis loved. Four children deposited the roses at the foot of the altar before cardinals performed the burial rite at his tomb in a nearby niche

Earlier, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re eulogized history’s first Latin American pontiff during the Vatican Mass as a pope of the people, a pastor who knew how to communicate to the “least among us” with an informal, spontaneous style.

“He was a pope among the people, with an open heart towards everyone,” the 91-year-old dean of the College of Cardinals said in a highly personal sermon. He drew applause from the crowd when he recounted Francis’ constant concern for migrants, exemplified by celebrating Mass at the U.S.-Mexico border and traveling to a refugee camp in Lesbos, Greece, when he brought 12 migrants home with him.

“The guiding thread of his mission was also the conviction that the church is a home for all, a home with its doors always open,” Re said, noting that with his travels, the Argentine pontiff reached “the most peripheral of the peripheries of the world.”

An extraordinary meeting about Ukraine on the sidelines
Despite Francis’ focus on the powerless, the powerful were out in force at his funeral. U.S. President Donald Trump and former President Joe Biden, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer joined Prince William and continental European royals leading more than 160 official delegations. Argentine President Javier Milei had pride of place given Francis’ nationality, even if the two didn’t particularly get along and the pope alienated many in his homeland by never returning there.

In an extraordinary development, Trump and Zelenskyy met privately on the sidelines. A photo showed the two men sitting alone, facing one another and hunched over on chairs in St. Peter’s Basilica, where Francis often preached the need for a peaceful end to Russia’s war in Ukraine.