Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Argentina to Italian immigrants, Pope Francis was the first to be elected Pope from the Americas.
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Jesuit priest Jorge Mario Bergoglio seen in this undated image. The Argentinian Jorge Mario Bergoglio, ordained for the Jesuits on 1969 at the Theological faculty of San Miguel was elected as Pope Francis on March 13, 2013 as the first ever Jesuit pontiff. The Society of Jesus, founded in 1540 by the Spanish Ignatius of Loyola’s, is a Christian male religious order of the Roman Catholic Church. The society is engaged in evangelization and apostolic ministry in 112 nations and on six continents. Jesuits operate in education (founding schools, colleges, universities and seminaries), intellectual research and cultural pursuits.
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Pope John Paul II greets the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio at the Vatican on June 29, 1998.
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AP
In this 2000 photo, Argentina’s Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio, left, gives a mass in honor of slain Priest Carlos Mugica, the day his remains were taken to the Villa 31 slum in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Mugica was born in Buenos Aires in 1930 and worked with the needy, advocating liberation theology in Buenos Aires’ slums. He was assassinated in 1974, two years before Argentina’s dictatorship, by the Argentine Anti-Communist Alliance, a right-wing death squad, when he had just finished celebrating mass in Buenos Aires. Every significant slum in Buenos Aires has a church, thanks in part to Bergoglio, who was elected pope on March 13, 2013.
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Pope John Paul II (Karol Wojtyła) names Jorge Mario Bergoglio as cardinal during a consistory in St. Peter’s Square on Feb. 21, 2001 in Vatican City, Vatican.
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This April 4, 2005 file photo shows Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, celebrating a Mass in honor of Pope John Paul II at the Buenos Aires Cathedral in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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In this 2008 file photo, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio travels on the subway in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Bergoglio was hailed with pride and wonder as the “first Latino pope,” a native Spanish speaker born and raised in the South American nation of Argentina. But for some Latinos in the United States, there’s a catch: Pope Francis’ parents were born in Italy. The conversation about Pope Francis’ ethnicity is rooted in history and geography. Latin America is a complex region of deep racial and class narratives.
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Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio celebrates the traditional Tedeum mass at the Metropolitan Cathedral on May 25, 2008 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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This Aug. 7, 2009 file photo shows Argentina’s Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio giving a mass outside the San Cayetano church in Buenos Aires.
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This Aug. 7, 2009 file photo shows Argentina’s Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio giving a mass outside San Cayetano church in Buenos Aires.
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Newly elected Pope Francis I waves to the waiting crowd from the central balcony of St Peter’s Basilica on March 13, 2013 in Vatican City, Vatican. Argentinian Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected as the 266th Pontiff and led the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics.
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Pope Francis waves to the crowd while departing the Metropolitan Cathedral in the Popemobile after arriving on July 22, 2013 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. More than 1.5 million pilgrims were expected to join Pope Francis for his visit to the Catholic Church’s World Youth Day celebrations. Pope Francis was scheduled to visit Brazil from July 22 to 28.
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Pope Francis celebrated a consistory ceremony and consecrated 19 new members of the College of Cardinals as his predecessor Benedict XVI made a surprise rare appearance on Feb. 23, 2014 at the Vatican.
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Pope Francis waves to the crowd after conducting mass at the Tacloban Airport on Jan. 17, 2015 in Tacloban, Leyte, Philippines. Pope Francis is visited venues across Leyte and Manila during his visit to the Philippines from January 15 – 19. The visit attracted crowds in the millions as Filipino Catholics flocked to catch a glimpse of the leader of the Catholic Church in the Philippines for the first time since 1995. The Pope was in Tacloban for one day to visit areas devastated by Typhoon Haiyan before he returned to Manila and held a mass at Rizal Park. The Philippines is the only Catholic majority nation in Asia with around 90% of the population professing the faith.
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Former President Obama and former first Lady Michelle Obama wave from the balcony with Pope Francis in an arrival ceremony at the White House on Sept. 23, 2015 in Washington, DC. The Pope began his first trip to the United States at the White House followed by a visit to St. Matthew’s Cathedral, and then held a Mass on the grounds of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.
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Pope Francis delivers an address to the General Assembly of the United Nations on Sept. 25, 2015 in New York City.
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Pope Francis prays at the edge of the South Pool at the World Trade Center on Sept. 25, 2015 in New York City.
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President Trump meets with Pope Francis for a private audience at the Vatican on May 24, 2017.
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Pope Francis welcomes 1500 people in need to have lunch at Paul VI Audience Hall on the occasion of the first World Day of the Poor in Vatican City, Nov. 19, 2017
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Pope Francis greets newlyweds during his weekly general audience at Aula Paolo VI in the Vatican on Dec. 27, 2017.
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Pope Francis blows the candle of cake for his 82nd birthday, offered to him during an audience for children and families of the Santa Marta dispensary on Dec. 16, 2018 at the Vatican. Pope Francis turned 82 on Dec. 17, 2018.
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Pope Francis meets members of the International Association of Indigenous Peoples during weekly general audience in St Peter’s Square at the Vatican on May 30, 2018.
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Pope Francis attends the third day of the Meeting On The Protection Of Minors in the Church at the Synod Hall on Feb. 23, 2019 in Vatican City, Vatican. The Pope said the world expects concrete measures to tackle child sexual abuse by priests and not only simple and obvious condemnations.
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Pope Francis and Egypt’s Azhar Grand Imam Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb sign documents during the Human Fraternity Meeting at the Founders Memorial in Abu Dhabi on Feb. 4, 2019. Pope Francis rejected “hatred and violence” in the name of God, on the first visit by the head of the Catholic church to the Muslim-majority Arabian Peninsula.
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Pope Francis delivers his Sunday Angelus blessing from the window of his private library overlooking an empty St. Peter’s Square on April 26, 2020 in Vatican City, Vatican. Pope Francis’ activity continued during the lockdown due to the Covid-19 spread.
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Pope Francis presides over the Way of the Cross in a near empty St. Peter’s Square, due to the Covid-19 pandemic on April 10, 2020 in Vatican City, Vatican. It marked a stark departure from the usual ceremony, which normally takes place at the Colosseum amid throngs of people as the Church remembers the final moments of the Passion, Death, and Burial of our Lord Jesus Christ. This year, measures taken to halt the spread of Covid-19 made it necessary to hold the service without the physical presence of the faithful.
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Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in the Vatican on Sept. 30, 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Pope Francis speaks at a square near the ruins of the Syriac Catholic Church of the Immaculate Conception (Al-Tahira-l-Kubra), in the old city of Iraq’s northern Mosul on March 7, 2021. Pope Francis, on his historic Iraq tour, visited Christian communities that endured the brutality of the Islamic State group until the jihadists’ “caliphate” was defeated three years ago
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Pope Francis wears a headdress presented to him by Indigenous leaders during a meeting at Muskwa Park in Maskwacis, Alberta, Canada, on July 25, 2022. Pope Francis made a historic personal apology to Indigenous survivors of child abuse committed over decades at Catholic-run institutions in Canada, at the start of a week-long visit he has described as a “penitential journey.”
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Pope Francis arrives on wheelchair during the audience to the Participants to Plenary Assembly of the International Union of Superiors General in the Paul VI hall at the Vatican, on May 5, 2022 .
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Bodyguards escort Pope Francis as he arrives in the popemobile car at St. Peter’s square on March 29, 2023 in the Vatican to hold the weekly general audience.
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Pope Francis gestures to Catholic faithful after leading holy mass at the Esplanade of Tasitolu in Dili, East Timor, on Sept. 10, 2024.
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Pope Francis poses with nuns at the end of a weekly general audience at Paul-VI hall in The Vatican on Feb. 5, 2025.
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Pope Francis addresses the crowd from the main balcony of St. Peter’s basilica during the Urbi et Orbi message and blessing to the city and the world as part of Easter celebrations, at St Peter’s square in the Vatican on April 20, 2025.
