Pope Francis was elected in 2013 as an unexpected choice – but with a mandate to reform the Catholic church.
At times, he went further than some in his own church were comfortable with, but he never changed the church’s core doctrine.
Through his 12-year papacy, he navigated through a labyrinth of modern issues, bringing the Catholic church along with him into the modern day as a more progressive pontiff.
From abortion to gay rights, climate change and immigration, the pontiff was often outspoken around political and divisive issues.
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Pope Francis washes and kisses the feet of refugees, in 2016.
Pic: AP
Immigration
One of Pope Francis’s more radical positions was around immigration.
While anti-immigration sentiment was on the rise in Europe, Francis was emphasising that the church should be a refuge for those on society’s fringes, such as migrants.
His first trip as Pope was to the Italian island of Lampedusa, the epicentre of Europe’s migration crisis.
Francis maintained his position up until the end, sharing “an exchange of opinions” over international conflicts, migrants and prisoners with US vice president JD Vance, his final guest to the Vatican the day before his death.
Even in his final speech, Francis alluded to criticising governments with anti-migrant policies.
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Climate change
One of the modern issues the Pope was the most outspoken on was climate change.
Pope Francis waded into the topic again and again, most pointedly in his writing Laudato Si.
This piece of writing on environmentalism and climate change saw the pontiff issue stinging criticism of “politics concerned with immediate results, supported by consumerist sectors” and “driven to produce short-term growth”.
He also railed against what he called the “structurally perverse” global economic system that exploited the poor and turned Earth into “an immense pile of filth”.
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Gay rights
Pope Francis initially made waves with a seemingly more welcoming approach to gay rights, but later came under criticism over allegations he used a homophobic slur.
During his first news conference on board the pontiff’s plane, Francis famously said: “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?”
Pope Francis speaks on the papal plane. Pic: AP
This was seen as the most conciliatory attitude toward gay people by a pontiff and a message to a community that had long felt shunned by the church.
In 2023, he said: “Being homosexual is not a crime,” urging an end to laws that criminalise it.
However, in June of 2024, Francis was accused of using a derogatory term about gay men in a private meeting.
It came weeks after he apologised for using a similar slur.
War and conflict
Since the advent of the most recent wave of fighting in the Middle East, Francis has spoken nearly daily to Father Gabriel Romanelli, head of the Catholic Church in Gaza.
He maintained this effort even when ill.
Father Gabriel Romanelli conducts midnight mass in Gaza City in 2021. Pic: AP/Adel Hana
He also repeatedly called for an end to fighting in Ukraine, meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy three times, and has been critical of Russia.
After the full-scale invasion in 2022, he said “rivers of blood and tears are flowing” in Ukraine.
“This is not just a military operation but a war which sows death, destruction and misery,” he said.
In his final public message at Easter, Francis repeated previous calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza as well as in Ukraine.
He also called for the release of all Israeli hostages.
Abortion
In April 2024, Francis appeared to reiterate the Vatican’s opposition to abortion when he signed the text “Dignitas Infinita” (Infinite Dignity), which calls abortion an “extremely dangerous crisis of the moral sense”.
He was previously criticised for comparing abortion to hiring a “contract killer”.
While he changed much within the church, Francis towed the line on the issue of abortion.
Priest sex abuse
The pope was also said to have misstepped around allegations of priest sexual abuse.
His papacy’s greatest crisis came in 2018, when he discredited Chilean victims of abuse and stood by a bishop linked to their abuser, a notorious paedophile.
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Francis later backtracked and invited the victims to the Vatican for a personal mea culpa and summoned the leadership of the Chilean church to have them resign.
Another crisis erupted over ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the retired archbishop of Washington and a counsellor to three popes.
He was the most high-profile church figure to be dismissed from the priesthood in modern times after a Vatican investigation found him guilty of sex abuse against children and adults.
