Dec. 17, 1936: Jorge Mario Bergoglio is born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the eldest of five children to Mario Jose Bergoglio, an accountant from Italy, and Regina Maria Sivori, the daughter of Italian immigrants.
Dec. 13, 1969: Ordained a priest with the Jesuit religious order during Argentina’s murderous dictatorship that began in the 1970s.
May 20, 1992: Named auxiliary bishop of Buenos Aires and in 1998 succeeds Cardinal Antonio Quarracino as archbishop of the Argentine capital.
Feb. 21, 2001: Elevated to cardinal by then pope and now Saint John Paul II.
March 13, 2013: Elected 266th pope, the first from the Americas, the first Jesuit and the first to take the name of Francis, after St. Francis of Assisi.
Nov. 26, 2013: Issues mission statement for his papacy in Evangelii Gaudium, (“The Joy of the Gospel”), denouncing the world financial system that excludes the poor.
May 25, 2014: Makes an unscheduled stop to pray at wall separating Israel from West Bank town of Bethlehem, in a show of support for the Palestinian cause. He later hosts Israeli and Palestinian presidents for peace prayers in the Vatican gardens.
June 18, 2015: Issues his environmental manifesto “Laudato Si” (“Praised Be”), accuses the “structurally perverse” global economic system that as turned Earth into “an immense pile of filth.”
Sept. 8, 2015: Overhauls the annulment process to make it faster, cheaper and easier for divorced Catholics to remarry in the church.
Feb. 18, 2016: Prays for dead migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, later says then-presidential candidate Donald Trump is “not a Christian” for wanting to build a border wall.
April 16, 2016: Visits a refugee camp in Lesbos, Greece, and brings 12 Syrian Muslims to Rome aboard his papal plane in an appeal for solidarity toward migrants.
April 12, 2018: Admits to “grave errors” in judgment in Chile’s sex abuse scandal.
Aug. 3, 2018: Declares capital punishment “inadmissible” under all circumstances in a change to official church teaching.
Feb. 4, 2019: Signs the “Human Fraternity” document with the imam of Al Azhar, establishing collaborative relations between Catholics and Muslims.
Feb. 16, 2019: Defrocks Cardinal Theodore McCarrick after Vatican investigation finds he sexually abused minors and adults.
Feb. 12, 2020: Declines to approve ordination of married men as priests.
March 5-8, 2021: Becomes first pope to visit Iraq, meeting with its top Shiite Muslim cleric.
March 29, 2023: Is admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital for respiratory infection; is released April 1.
June 7, 2023: Undergoes surgery to remove intestinal scar tissue and repair a hernia in the abdominal wall.
Oct. 4, 2023: Opens a synod on making the church more responsive to ordinary faithful during which women are allowed to vote alongside bishops for the first time.
Dec. 19, 2023: Approves blessings for same-sex couples provided they don’t resemble marriage, sparking fierce opposition from conservative bishops in Africa, Asia and elsewhere.
Sept. 10, 2024: Some 600,000 people, half of East Timor’s population, attend Francis’ Mass in Dili in what is believed to be the biggest turnout for a papal event in terms of the proportion of the population.
Feb. 14, 2025: Is hospitalized after a bout of bronchitis worsens and then develops into a complex lung infection and double pneumonia.
March 23, 2025: Is released from the hospital after 38 days of treatment but looks weak and frail.
April 20, 2025: Imparts the Easter Urbi et Orbi blessing from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, then surprises the 35,000 faithful with a long ride in the popemobile, in what would become his final goodbye to the faithful.
April 21, 2025: Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the camerlengo, announces from the chapel of the Domus Santa Marta hotel where Francis lived that the pope died at 7:35 a.m.
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