Pope Francis greets the faithful as he holds Easter Mass in St. Peter's Square on April 20, 2014 in Vatican City, Vatican. Photo / Getty Images
Pope Francis has died at the age of 88.
The Vatican announced he died of a stroke at his Santa Maria residence, almost a month after a five-week stay in hospital battling pneumonia.
Elected on March 13, 2013, he served as the leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics for 12 years. He was the first Latin American to hold the papacy, and the first outside Europe since the 8th century.
He was notable for his more liberal and open-minded views on Christianity.
In 2013, when asked whether a gay person could become a priest, he famously replied, “Who am I to judge?”. In 2023, he formally signed off on allowing Catholic priests to bless same-sex couples. Earlier this year, he said, “Being homosexual isn’t a crime”. While he did refer to it as a “sin”, gay rights advocates saw his wider comments as a milestone.
Bishop Michael Dooley, the Bishop of Dunedin, told The Front Page Pope Francis was not going against any teachings of the church when he said this.
“What he was doing was saying to the church and to all of us, we need to respect and acknowledge each other as human beings. So he was speaking to those responses to people, especially from [that] community that has been discriminated against and abused in different ways, that this must not happen.
“He was very much a Pope who expressed and put forward the importance of each of us being made in the image of God. It was a strong message, but it wasn’t something that was against church teaching. He was just reiterating the importance of respecting each other,” he said.
Pope Francis never shied away from commenting on world politics. In February, he criticised US President Donald Trump’s administration for its deportation policies and urged Catholics to reject anti-immigrant narratives.
Commentary about Pope Francis’ values and support of all people regardless of race or sexuality points towards a papacy that perhaps made religion more palatable for the entirety of society.
“There is definitely that element of that and I think he, let’s say, preached the gospel and the values but also did live them out in his everyday life,” Dooley said, “I think it was very important what he did and I’m sure that it will influence the next successor.”
Recent films depicting what it’s like behind the scenes of the Catholic church have captivated audiences. The Two Popes chronicled the relationship between Francis and Pope Benedict around the time the papacy was transferred from one to the other.
More recently, Conclave was nominated for several Academy Awards. The film depicts the ancient process of choosing the next Pope – something that’s developed over almost two millennia. It’s believed to be the oldest historical method of electing a head of state.
“After Pope Francis’ funeral, the cardinals of the church will be summoned to Rome. Those who are under 80 years old are eligible to vote ... They will gather in Rome together and meet in the conclave and vote on a new Pope. It often takes a few days to sort out who the candidates are,” Dooley said.
A majority of two-thirds of the gathering is needed to agree on a new Pope.
There are 252 cardinals, of whom 135 are eligible to vote in the papal conclave. Seventy-six-year-old New Zealand Cardinal John Dew will be among them, despite retiring as Archbishop of Wellington in 2023. He was made a cardinal by Pope Francis in 2015.
Another cardinal close to home is Cardinal Mykola Bychok, Australia’s highest-ranking Catholic official. He’s the world’s youngest cardinal, having been made one by Pope Francis in December last year at 45 years old.
Of the front-runners to take over the papacy, the youngest name thrown into the ring is in their late 60s.
Dooley told The Front Page cardinals are generally reluctant to elect someone too young, “because then usually you’re stuck with that Pope until they die”.
“It can be a long time. So the advantage of having an older Pope is that there’ll be another Pope that’ll come in a reasonable length of time,” he said.
He thinks the success of the film Conclave could lead to this being the most-watched, real-life papal conclave ever.
“I think it will create quite a bit of interest because there have been a number of people who have spoken to me who aren’t even Catholics, but have been quite fascinated by the process,” he said.
Listen to the full episode to hear more about the process to choose the next pope.
The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. The podcast is presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime/justice reporting who joined NZME in 2016.
You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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