Pope Francis, head of the Roman Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican state, has died aged 88.
According to the Vatican, Pope died at 07:35 local time on Easter Monday.
His death comes days after he appeared in St Peter’s Square to wish “Happy Easter to thousands of worshipers.
He was recently discharged from the hospital last month after five weeks of treatment for an infection.
Facts about Pope life.
Pope Francis was born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in 1936 in the Argentinian capital, Buenos Aires, to immigrant parents who fled Italy’s fascist dictatorship of Benito Mussolini.
He trained as a chemical technician, worked in the food processing industry and, for a brief time, was a bouncer in a nightclub in Cordoba before becoming a priest in 1969.
His upbringing in Buenos Aires exposed him to religious pluralism and socioeconomic inequalities-two factors that experts believe explain his commitment to interfaith dialogue and pointed criticism of capitalism and consumerism.
At just 36 years of age, he became the head of Argentina’s Jesuits, a Roman Catholic order of priests.
In 1998, he became the archbishop of Buenos Aires where he would become an outspoken critic of social injustice and economic inequality.
In what was a tight race for the 2013 conclave, Francis, who had already been a runner-up in the previous papal conclave in 2005, was elected.
With him, the Church chose its first non-European pontiff in 1,282 years the last one was Gregory III, elected in 731 from Syria and also its first leader since then from the Global South, which today is home to the majority of Christians worldwide.
Francis’s death sets in motion the centuries-old process of electing a news Pope.
How is a new pope chosen?
Cardinals under the age of 80, when the pope dies or resigns, vote in what is known as the papal conclave.
To prevent outside influence, the conclave locks itself in the Sistine Chapel and deliberates on potential successors.
While the number of papal electors is typically capped at 120, there are currently 138 eligible voters. Its members cast their votes via secret ballots, a process overseen by nine randomly selected cardinals.
A two-thirds majority is traditionally required to elect the new pope, and voting continues until this threshold is met.
After each round, the ballots are burned with chemicals, producing either black or white smoke. Black smoke signals that no decision has been made, while white smoke means a new pope has been elected. Once a pope is chosen, a top cardinal announces his name from St Peter’s Basilica.
Source: Agencies
