Pope Francis has died this morning at 7:35 in Vatican City. The Holy See communicated the news with a message that has deeply touched the hearts of the faithful throughout the world: "He taught us to live the values of the Gospel with fidelity, courage, and universal love, especially in favor of the poorest and most marginalized. With immense gratitude for his example as a true disciple of the Lord Jesus, we commend the soul of Pope Francis to the infinite merciful love of the One and Triune God".
He was born on the 17th December, 1936 in Buenos Aires to a family of Italian origin, who emigrated to Argentina in 1928 seeking their fortune, Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected Supreme Pontiff on the 13th March, 2013, taking the name of Francis, the first in history. In fact, he is a Pope very close to St. Francis of Assisi, to the Franciscan charism and to the Franciscan friars.
Immediately after the conclave, he himself recounted that during the ballot, as soon as the necessary votes for the election were obtained, his neighbour, Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes, OFM, archbishop emeritus of São Paulo and a great friend of his, embraced him and told him: "Don't forget the poor." Francis never did. "How I would like a Church that is poor and for the poor! This is why my name is Francis, like Francis of Assisi," he said in his first press conference as Pope, remembering the Poverello-poor man of Assisi as a man of poverty, a man of peace, it was a way to pray for the dead who had been ship-wrecked, but also to awaken our consciences to the suffering felt by so many men and women forced to leave their country of origin, arriving in foreign lands that do not welcome them, that forget them, that ignore their stories.
Pope Francis encapsulated his thoughts on human fraternity in the encyclical Fratelli Tutti, taking up the words of St. Francis and signing it on the 3rd October, 2020 right on his tomb, in Assisi, to make it public on the 4th October, the liturgical feast of the saint.
In 2016 he established the World Day of the Poor, a "concrete sign" of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy that the Holy Father wanted to celebrate in that year: a day so that every baptized person can reflect on how poverty is at the heart of the Gospel and that can encourage actions of solidarity towards the most needy, in every corner of the Earth.
So, to the Earth, to the care of Creation and to the common home, on the 24th May, 2015 he dedicated another encyclical, Laudato Si', taking up the words of the Canticle of the Creatures that St. Francis wrote 800 years ago. By focusing on the concept of integral ecology, Pope Francis highlighted the interconnection between the environmental crisis and the social crisis of humanity, emphasizing the social, and not simply the "green," nature of the text. On the occasion of its publication, he also established the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, which is celebrated every 1st September and begins the Season of Creation, which runs until the 4th October.
On the anniversary of the Saint of Assisi, in 2023, the Apostolic Exhortation Laudate Deum was published, considered an "update" of Laudato Si', which focuses on the climate emergency and global warming that is now undeniable, due to the "unbridled human intervention on nature over the last two centuries" (LD, 14).
Pope Francis has been close to the Franciscan friars several times, in a literal sense. We remember him visiting the Porziuncola on 4 August 2016, on the occasion of the VIII Centenary of the Pardon of Assisi; in Assisi several times, as on the occasion of the 2016 Prayer Meeting for Peace; in Greccio in 2019 for the release of his Apostolic Letter Admirabile Signum, focused on the meaning and value of the nativity scene; in his surprise visit to the friars of the of the Friary of Holy Land in Rome in 2021. He has repeatedly invited the Ministers General of the OFM to the Apostolic Palace and has also received the Franciscan Family in audience on the occasion of the Franciscan Centenaries, which we have been celebrating since 2023.
On the other hand, the rescript with which the Pope derogated can. 588 §2 of the Code of Canon Law and the norms on the access of non-clerical religious, belonging to clerical Institutes of Pontifical Right (such as the OFM), to access government offices at all levels, thanks to which lay brothers can also become major superiors, bears the date of the 18th May, 2022.
In the years of his pontificate, 4 OFM friars were created cardinals and 38 appointed bishops. He canonized the Martyrs of Damascus and beatified many friars and Sisters of the OFM, without ever forgetting his closeness to the Order on the anniversaries that are of interest to him, for example on the 100th anniversary of the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum in Jerusalem.