Pope Francis has died, the Vatican announced on Monday ,ending a groundbreaking pontificate that sought, however haltingly, to reshape the Roman Catholic Church into a more inclusive institution.
His death will set off mourning around the world and deliberations and machinations to choose a successor.
The absence of Francis, a humble champion of the poor, creates a vacuum in the leadership of more than one billion Catholics, and leaves cardinals with a critical decision: whether to choose a new pope who will follow his welcoming, global approach or to restore the more doctrinaire path of his predecessors.
Pope Francis last appeared in public yesterday, when he blessed tens of thousands of people gathered in St. Peter’s Square for Easter Mass. From a wheelchair on a balcony at St. Peter’s Basilica, he waved and wished the crowd a “happy Easter.” Earlier in the day, Francis met with Vice President JD Vance for what the Vatican described as a “brief” visit