Vatican explains Pope Francis' cause of death

Pope Francis died Monday at age 88. The Vatican said the cause of death was a stroke that put him into a coma and led to heart failure.

History’s first Latin American pontiff charmed the world with his humble style and concern for the poor but alienated many conservatives with critiques of capitalism and climate change.

Francis recently returned to the Vatican after 38 days in a hospital for a respiratory crisis that developed into double pneumonia, the longest hospitalization of his 12-year papacy. He last appeared in public on Sunday with an Easter blessing and popemobile tour through a cheering crowd in St. Peter’s Square. No funeral date has been announced. The next pope is yet to be decided.

“I hope that whoever comes after him can be as competent, as affectionate and as loving,” said Mary Soul, a Christian resident of Aleppo, Syria.

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The Vatican said the cause of Francis’ death was a stroke that put him into a coma and led to heart failure.

It also said the pope had decreed that he will be buried in St. Mary Major Basilica in a simple underground tomb. The basilica is home to Francis’ favorite icon of the Virgin Mary, to whom he was particularly devoted.

Public likely can start paying final respects on Wednesday

The Vatican says the general public likely can begin paying final respects to Pope Francis starting Wednesday in St. Peter’s Basilica. The date will be confirmed when cardinals gather for the first time after Francis’ death Tuesday morning.

Francis’ coffin will be moved from the chapel of the Domus Santa Marta hotel where he lived to St. Peter’s Basilica for public viewing. In a change ordered by Francis, the pope’s body will no longer placed on an elevated bier in the basilica. Rather, the wooden coffin will be placed facing the pews.

No date for the funeral has been announced. It must be held between four and six days after the death.

Vatican holds its first public commemoration

The Vatican has begun a Rosary prayer in St. Peter’s Square in its first public commemoration following Pope Francis’ death. Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica, led the prayer as the sun set.

The first reading was delivered by Sister Raffaella Petrini, president of the Vatican City State and one of the highest ranking women at the Vatican. Her appointment was a sign of Francis' insistence that women be given more prominent, decision-making roles.

South Sudan recalls ‘a profound act of humility’

The South Sudan Council of Churches says it remembers with gratitude Francis’ visit to the country and his “dedicated efforts to promote healing and unity among our leaders.” The pope once famously knelt and kissed the feet of rivals President Salva Kiir and deputy Riek Machar, which the council called “a profound act of humility.” Tensions continue, however, recently raising fears of a return to civil war.

Putin says the timing of the death was ‘a special sign’

Russian President Vladimir Putin in televised remarks noted that the pope died immediately after Easter, suggesting that “this is a special sign that the person has lived their life not in vain and has done a lot of good.” Putin said Russians will always remember his “highly positive attitude to Russia.”

‘We are a bit orphaned’

The archbishop of Buenos Aires, Jorge Ignacio Garcia Cuerva, has told journaists that “we are a bit orphaned.” He also said the Argentine Francis was famous for asking people to pray for him. “Then he would say, ‘And if you don’t have faith? Still, send good vibes my way.’”

The archbishop said it couldn’t have been easy for Francis to learn to be a “father to the world.”

Pope’s historic address to Congress, a first

Francis became the first pope to address the U.S. Congress. It was a pivotal moment in bitterly divided Washington in 2015. He called on lawmakers to create a “culture of care” in welcoming immigrants, protecting the environment and sharing the nation’s wealth with those less fortunate.

The pope later spoke from a Capitol balcony, greeting thousands with “buenos dias.”

Love from beyond the Catholic faith

“I spoke this morning to my newsagent who told me his mother, who is a Hindu, loved Pope Francis,” said Patrick Somerville, as mourners knelt before a portrait of Francis at London’s Westminster Cathedral to offer prayers. “And I think that says it all.”

U.N. chief found ‘great meaning’ in pope's Easter message

The United Nations secretary-general has spoken to journalists about the pope. Antonio Guterres said that “many of us find great meaning in his final Easter message delivered just yesterday. He appealed for us not to yield to, as he called it, the ‘logic of fear.’”

‘I think he was a rebel’

In Francis’ hometown of Buenos Aires, Argentines gathered for Mass. Some cried. “I think he was a rebel. He may have been contradictory, but that was nice, too,” said worshiper Catalina Favaro.

Bishop Jorge García Cuerva told those gathered that “the pope of everyone has died. The pope of all humanity who insisted one and a thousand times that there must be room for everyone.”

The pope’s beloved soccer team — Buenos Aires club San Lorenzo, who nickname is “The Saints” — wrote “Goodbye, Holy Father” on its website. The team won the national championship in 2013, the year Francis was elected pope.

‘His name in golden letters’

Algeria’s President Abdelmadjid Tebboune called Francis an “immense personality” and said he “wrote his name in golden letters in modern history.” Though Christians have been increasingly targeted for proselytizing in Muslim-majority Algeria, the Catholic Church enjoys official recognition.

Biden and the Obamas remember

Former U.S. President Joe Biden says Francis was “unlike any who came before him. Pope Francis will be remembered as one of the most consequential leaders of our time, and I am better for having known him.” Biden, who is Catholic, called the pope a “challenging teacher” and “above all, he was a pope for everyone.”

Biden had planned to visit Francis one more time before leaving office, but the trip was canceled because of wildfires in the Los Angeles area.

“Pope Francis was the rare leader who made us want to be better people,” former U.S. President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, said. “He shook us out of our complacency and reminded us that we are all bound by moral obligations to God and one another.”

Mixed emotions in Ukraine

In Ukraine, there was a mix of sorrow and hope. “From a human point of view, it’s sad, of course,” said Valentina Sofilkanych in Lviv. “But as a Ukrainian, I hope the next Pope will be more pro-Ukrainian, we will feel more support from the church.” Francis tried to maintain the Vatican’s traditional diplomatic neutrality during the war there.

Some saw meaning in the small details

“He was a pope who was humble. When he visited Kenya, he rode in a very simple car,” said Ted Mutuku, a Catholic in the capital, Nairobi.

Voices from the Middle East

The leader of the Catholic Church in the Holy Land, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, said Francis was always deeply interested in the region, and Gaza was “a symbol of Francis’ pontificate,” with the pope “always close to the poor, against the war.”

The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem will hold a requiem mass on Wednesday with leaders of other major Christian sects.

In the occupied West Bank, Bethlehem Mayor Anton Salman said Francis worked to “restore the value and meaning of humanity.”

‘The world’s conscience'

The pope was “in many respects the world’s conscience, never hesitating to challenge the powerful on behalf of the vulnerable,” said Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who is Catholic. He noted the pope’s visit in 2022, when he apologized for the church’s cooperation with Canada’s policy of Indigenous residential schools, saying the forced assimilation destroyed their cultures.

‘Love where there was hatred’

Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said the pope “tirelessly sought to bring love where there was hatred. Unity where there was discord. And the understanding that we are all equal, living in the same house, our planet, which urgently needs our care.” Francis visited in 2013.

The soccer-loving pope

Gianni Infantino, president of soccer’s world governing body FIFA, noted the pope’s love for soccer and said that “all the prayers of the whole football world are with him.”

A final appearance, a final goodbye

Italian President Sergio Mattarella said Pope Francis’ final public act – an Easter morning blessing and popemobile tour through a crowd of thousands in St. Peter’s Square – in retrospect seems like his final goodbye to the church.

Criticism over sexual abuse issue

Critics of the Catholic Church’s handing of clergy sex abuse say the pope did far from enough.

“Where Francis had supreme power, he refused to make the necessary changes,” said Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of the U.S.-based group BishopAccountability.

David Clohessy, former national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, noted the pope’s “prompt and impressive action” on other matters but said the pope’s “genial personality and warm demeanor distracted many from the unhealthy and still essentially unaddressed structural and cultural flaws in the church that cause kids to keep being hurt.”

As Catholic Church grows in Africa, many mourn

Many across Africa have said they felt connected with the pope, who often spoke about issues at the heart of the region, from climate change to marginalization.

The pope was “very unambiguous in telling world powers to stop exploiting Africans,” said the Rev. Michael Nsikak Umoh, spokesperson for the Nigerian bishops’ association.

In Congo, where pope visited in 2023 to demand that foreign powers stop plundering Africa’s natural resources, Abbé Camille Esika in the capital, Kinshasa, said Francis “wanted to be the voice of the voiceless.”

The pope visited Africa five times, acknowledging the strong growth of the Catholic Church there. The South African Catholic Bishops’ Conference has encouraged all Catholics to pray for those choosing his successor.

U.N. chief praises the pope's example of ‘mutual understanding’

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a statement recalls that Pope Francis once said: “The future of humankind isn’t exclusively in the hands of politicians, of great leaders, of big companies … (it) is, most of all, in the hands of those people who recognize the other as a ‘you’ and themselves as part of an ‘us.’”

Guterres adds that “Our divided and discordant world will be a much better place if we follow his example of unity and mutual understanding in our own actions.”