Pope Francis died on Easter Monday morning, 21 April 2025, at his residence in the Vatican's Casa Santa Marta.
"God’s mercy is our liberation and our happiness. We live for mercy, and we cannot afford to be without mercy. It is the air that we breathe. We are too poor to set any conditions. We need to forgive, because we need to be forgiven.”
Many saw him on Easter Sunday across news bulletin broadcasts throughout the globe, his final Urbi et Orbi blessing on Easter Day from the central Loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica. Pope Francis spoke slowly, his shallow breath noticeable. From his blessing on the balcony of St Peter's Square, he also continued to greet and bless the cheering crowds as he was driven in his popemobile.
Jorge Mario Bergoglio was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on 17 December 1936 and was the eldest of five children. His parents fled their native Italy to escape Mussolini's dictatorship.
In his sermons, Pope Francis called for social inclusion and criticised governments that failed to pay attention to the poorest in society: "We live in the most unequal part of the world," he said, "which has grown the most, yet reduced misery the least."
As Pope, he made great efforts to heal the thousand-year rift with the Eastern Orthodox Church. In recognition, for the first time since the Great Schism of 1054, the Patriarch of Constantinople attended the installation of a new Bishop of Rome.
In 2023, he made a pilgrimage to South Sudan, pleading with the country's leaders to end the conflict.
Despite cutting down his workload post his time in hospital this year, the Pope was able to meet King Charles during the British monarch's four-day state visit to Italy at the beginning of April.
Despite his critics, Pope Francis did bring change. "If I had to choose between a wounded Church that goes out on to the streets and a sick, withdrawn Church, I would choose the first."
Statement issued by the Acropolis Museum, 22 April 2025:
The President, the Board of Directors and the General Director of the Acropolis Museum, also express their deepest sorrow at the death of Pope Francis, adding their sincere gratitude for his practical support in the just cause, the reunification of the Parthenon sculptures. A support that can be mirrored by others also.
In Rome, two years ago, on Tuesday 07 March 2023, the Vatican and Greece signed the papers for the return of three sculpture fragments from the Parthenon that have been in the collection of the Vatican Museums for two centuries.
Here's to Pope Francis' magnanimous gesture for the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles being mirrored by those institutions that continue to hold fragments of this peerless collection of sculptures.
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