The church bells have rung out in Rome and around the world to honor the Pope, who passed away at 07:35 on Monday morning. The news came from Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the camerlengo (chamberlain) of the Roman Catholic Church.
"He dedicated his entire life to serving the Lord and his Church," Farrell announced via the Vatican's news service.
Farrell, who temporarily takes over the daily work of leading the Vatican State, said that the Pope lived "according to the Gospel with faith, courage, and all-encompassing love" especially towards the poorest and most vulnerable.
The Vatican published the death certificate on Monday evening, which shows that Francis died of "irreversible heart failure" caused by a stroke.
According to the newspaper Corriere Della Sera, the Pope woke up at around 6 am at home in his apartment in the Vatican and felt relatively well. But about an hour later, he began to feel unwell and passed away shortly after.
Tears in their eyes
Cardinal Mauro Gambetti held a series of prayers, a so-called rosary, on St. Peter's Square in memory of the Pope.
Thousands of people have gathered in the Vatican throughout the day and queued to enter St. Peter's Basilica.
He survived Easter and then left us. He has returned to the Lord, may God be with him, says Cesarina Cireddu, a tourist from Sardinia, to AFP with tears in her eyes.
Venezuelan Riccardo Vielma, who is studying to become a priest, is also moved.
We have lost our spiritual father. Now humanity must unite and pray for him, he says.
Held Easter speech
The Pope's passing occurred less than 24 hours after he held his Easter speech "urbi et orbi" ("to the city and the world") before 35,000 people on St. Peter's Square.
In it, the 88-year-old, who had recently been seriously ill with double-sided pneumonia, expressed his support for, among other things, religious and freedom of expression. He also warned against increasing anti-Semitism and called for an end to the war in Gaza.
After the speech, he took a triumphant lap in his "pope mobile". The Pope looked weak but the round trip brought joy to the crowd, many believed he was on the mend after his long hospital stay. The frail Pope was discharged from Gemelli Hospital in Rome in March, where he had been treated for life-threatening pneumonia with complications.
Over the years, he has repeatedly had problems with his airways. He lacked a part of a lung after a serious infection in the 1950s.
Simpler funeral
The former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio became known as a down-to-earth, progressive, and football-loving Pope when he took office in 2013. His commitment to the vulnerable in society is reflected in how he wishes to be laid to rest: in a simpler funeral in the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome.
Francis will thus become the first Pope in over a hundred years to be buried outside the Vatican. A conclave to elect a new Pope is expected to be held within two to three weeks.
Catholics see the Pope as the head of the Church and at the same time as Jesus' representative on earth.
Pope Francis was born as Jorge Mario Bergoglio on December 17, 1936, in Buenos Aires. His parents were Italian immigrants. Bergoglio studied chemistry and also read literature and psychology.
He was ordained as a Jesuit priest in 1969 and later became Archbishop of Buenos Aires before being elected Pope on March 13, 2013.
He took the name Francis after the saint Francis of Assisi. The latter was an Italian order man and founder of the Franciscan Order, who, among other things, cared for lepers and the poor and reformed the Church. He also received a call to live without possessions and without a fixed abode.
Sources: The Catholic Church and National Encyclopedia
