Key dates in the life of Pope Francis

VATICAN CITY: Here are some key dates in the life of Pope Francis, the first Jesuit and Latin American pope, who died on Monday aged 88:

• December 17, 1936: Jorge Mario Bergoglio is born in Buenos Aires to an accountant and a housewife from an Italian emigrant family.

• September 21, 1953: Receives his calling to become a priest. He later described being moved to go to church while heading to a school event, a day that “changed my life”.

• 1957: Undergoes an operation to remove part of his lung.

• March 11, 1958: After studying chemical engineering at university, he joins the Jesuit order as a novice.

• December 13, 1969: Ordained as a priest. On July 31, 1973, he becomes leader of Argentina’s Jesuits, a position he holds for six years.

• 1980: Amid tensions in the Jesuit order, returns to work as parish priest and rector at a college in San Miguel, near the capital. In 1986 he goes to Germany and later, Argentina’s second city Cordoba. He returns to Buenos Aires in 1992 as auxiliary bishop.

• February 28, 1998: Appointed archbishop of Buenos Aires.

• February 21, 2001: Made cardinal by John-Paul II.

• March 13, 2013: Elected 266th pope after his predecessor Benedict XVI resigns. He chooses the name Francis in reference to Francis of Assisi, patron saint of the poor.

• July 8, 2013: Makes first trip outside Rome to the Italian island of Lampedusa, a major gateway to Europe for migrants, where he castigates the “globalisation of indifference.” Three years later, he will bring back 12 families from a migrant camp in Lesbos, Greece.

• July 11, 2013: Launches a reform of the Vatican’s penal code to fight sexual abuse against minors and corruption within the Church.

• July 29, 2013: Signals a more tolerant church when he says on a flight back from Brazil that “if someone is gay and is searching for the Lord and has good will, then who am I to judge him?”

• June 18, 2015: Francis publishes his second encyclical, “Laudato Si’” dedicated to environmentalism. The letter urges action against climate change.

• February 12, 2016: Holds a historic meeting with the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, Kirill, nearly 1,000 years after the schism between the Eastern Church and Rome.

• May 23, 2016: Historic audience at the Vatican with Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, the grand imam of Cairo’s prestigious Al-Azhar mosque.

• April 11, 2018: Francis acknowledges “grave errors” in his handling of child sexual abuse cases in Chile and asks for forgiveness.

• September 22, 2018: Francis announces the first-ever agreement between China and the Holy See over bishop appointments.

• March 27, 2020: As much of Europe shuts down due to coronavirus, Francis delivers an “Urbi et Orbi” address alone in a deserted St Peter’s Square.

• October 21, 2020: In a documentary, says he is in favour of same-sex civil unions.

• March 6, 2021: During the first ever papal visit to Iraq, meets the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

• July 4, 2021: Undergoes successful colon surgery, spending 10 days in hospital.

• June 5, 2022: New Apostolic Constitution comes into force, completing a major reform of the governance of the church that he began when he took office.

• January 5, 2023: Presides over the funeral of Benedict XVI in St Peter’s Square.

• March 29, 2023: Admitted to hospital for a respiratory infection, and stays three nights.

• June 7, 2023: Admitted to hospital for hernia surgery, staying nine nights.

• September 3, 2024: Embarks on epic, 12-day voyage, the farthest of his papacy, to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore – at age 87.

• February 14, 2025: Admitted to hospital with bronchitis, which turns into double pneumonia.