bitchy | Pope Francis passed away on Easter Monday at the age of 88

Pope Francis has passed away at the age of 88. Francis was hospitalized for much of February and March, and his medical situation was reportedly extremely dire. He managed to survive pneumonia, get released from the hospital and he spent much of April giving photo-ops to terrible people. The poor man just met JD Vance on Easter Sunday and he must have thought “yeah, I’ve seen enough.” I feel that.

Pope Francis, who rose from modest means in Argentina to become the first Jesuit and Latin American pontiff, who clashed bitterly with traditionalists in his push for a more inclusive Roman Catholic Church, and who spoke out tirelessly for migrants, the marginalized and the health of the planet, died on Monday at the Vatican’s Casa Santa Marta. He was 88.

The pope’s death was announced by the Vatican in a statement on X, a day after Francis appeared in his wheelchair to bless the faithful in St. Peter’s Square on Easter Sunday.

Throughout his 12-year papacy, Francis was a change agent, having inherited a Vatican in disarray in 2013 after the stunning resignation of his predecessor, Benedict XVI, a standard-bearer of Roman Catholic conservatism.

Francis steadily steered the church in another direction, restocking its leadership with a diverse array of bishops who shared his pastoral, welcoming approach as he sought to open up the church. Many rank-and-file Catholics approved, believing that the church had become inward-looking and distant from ordinary people.

Francis reached out to migrants, the poor and the destitute, to victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy members, and to alienated gay Catholics. He traveled to often-forgotten and far-flung countries and sought to improve relations with an antagonistic Chinese government, Muslim clerics and leaders from across the fragmented Christian world.

I was startled to realize that Francis was only pope for twelve years. It felt like a lot longer, and that’s not a diss – that’s a reflection of how well the Vatican’s PR used Francis to remake the image of the papacy. Francis was seen as a fresh start and he embraced a much more accepting and tolerant vision for the papacy, minus a couple of Italian slurs. Anyway… the conclave is going to be a mess, and my guess is that the next pope will probably be a European. Francis’s funeral is going to be especially well-attended though.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Avalon Red.