He told the world he wished to be known as Pope Francis. His trademark humility was genuine, and did much to strip away perceptions of an aloof “Holy Roman Empire”. He immediately discarded the showy red velvet slippers and ornate vestments, preferring to wear plain white.
Having once worked as a doorman at a tango club in Buenos Aires, his affinity was to ordinary people in life’s travails.
As a global leader he had a direct line to the world’s powerful, but even on his sick bed, it was the most vulnerable whom he most wished to be in touch with.
He would contact the parish priest of Gaza nightly at 8pm to tell him his parishioners were in his prayers.
In his introduction to the world on March 13, 2013, he explained how he took his name: “Thinking of the poor, I thought of Francis of Assisi. Then I thought of all the wars, as the votes were still being counted, till the end. Francis is also the man of peace…”
He had little time for the elite, once describing unbridled capitalism as the “dung of the devil”.
Having become the first South American, and also first Jesuit, to be head of the Catholic Church, many hoped Francis would also have a transformational papacy, and drag an arcane and remote Catholic Church into the 21st century.
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Perhaps people were either overestimating his abilities, or underestimating the overwhelming conservative forces ranged against him.
He did not champion the cause of women to be ordained, as many also hoped.
Yet he did set a quiet revolution of inclusivity in motion. “Who am I to judge?” he answered, responding to a question about a purportedly gay priest.
Francis also set a tone for a papacy that was more welcoming to LGBTQ+ Catholics.
He continually fought exclusion and warned: “I want to remind priests that the confessional must not be a torture chamber, but rather an encounter with the Lord’s mercy.”
His determination to get his message of love and compassion out shone through to the end.
On Easter Sunday, Pope Francis chose to ignore the advice of his doctors and greet the faithful.
And though a constant critic of the Trump administration, he went ahead with a meeting with US vice-president JD Vance.
After Sunday’s meeting, when his last public address was read, he appealed to all in power not to yield to “the logic of fear which only leads to isolation from others”.
He pleaded with them to take up the “weapons of peace: weapons that build the future, instead of sowing seeds of death”.
And seldom, if ever, has such a message needed to be heard.
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