On April 21, 2025, hours after serving his Easter mass, Pope Francis passed due to a stroke consisting of irreversible cardiocirculatory collapse. His death was sudden and mournful. Pope Francis was elected on March 13, 2013 and applied many humble and kind hearted changes to our world. He had a consistent emphasis on social injustices, speaking on things like climate change, economic inequalities, and prioritized praying over those less fortunate.
A Pope is the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, and is considered to be a spiritual successor of Saint Peter, an apostle of Jesus. This means that Pope Francis’ humbleness led the Church into ways they would consider ‘like Jesus’.
Many were shocked by the death of Pope Francis, churches everywhere began to mourn and set up memorials, like at Durangos own St Columba Church. A student at St Columba, Millie Bird, said, “Pope Francis was someone our whole world could look up to as a role model. Not just by his humility, but also by his faith,” she continues with, “his death is one of the biggest tragedies our church has faced in many years and we find it very important to not only honor his life, but also his death.”
Pope Francis had early acts of humility. On his first Holy Thursday as pope in 2013, a special holiday that resembles the Last Supper Jesus had with his disciples, Pope Francis had a foot-washing ceremony where he washed the feet of 12 inmate juveniles. This group included Women of the muslim religion. The ceremony has shown a step into the future for the Church, showing kindness and forgiveness towards each religion and person.
You might be thinking, what will happen now? When a pope passes or retires, the Catholic Church has a process to elect a new leader through a gathering called the conclave. It groups cardinals, a senior clergy member, to a 14 to 20 day long period. In this time, they allow a period for mourning and preparations, while also staying completely isolated from the public. There are up to four ballots daily for choosing this leader, and once coming to a decision the chosen cardinal must choose to accept. Whether this election is successful or not is shown by smoke released from the Sistine Chapel Chimney. White smoke resembling a choice, black smoke resembling undecided. As the church mourns the loss of the strong late Pope, they look towards the future in hope to find someone to fill this strong leadership position.
