Pope Francis

Pope Francis (1936 – 2025), born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, was head of the Catholic Church, born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2013 until his death. He was the first pope from the Society of Jesus, popularly known as the Jesuit Order, the first of Latin American identity, the first from the Americas, the first from the Southern Hemisphere, and the first born or raised outside of Europe since the 8th-century Syrian pope Gregory III. After the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI on 28 February 2013, he was elected Bergoglio as his successor on 13 March, who chose Francis as his papal name in honour of Saint Francis of Assisi.