When Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was not elected pope after John Paul II in 2005, experts counted him out for the top job.
Eight years later, it was the 76-year-old Bergoglio who stepped out onto the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica on March 12, 2013, after Benedict XVI's early abdication.
A popular choice.
Bergoglio! cheered visitors Elena and Marta from Rome, embracing each other in the crowd in front of St. Peter's Basilica.
He's going to be a great pope. He's so good with people, Elena told TT's correspondent.
Bus and Subway
Much of his popularity came from the image of him as a man of the people.
My people are poor, and I am one of them, he explained after being appointed Archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998, when he continued to live in his apartment, cooked his own food, and often took the bus and subway.
That he, as pope, chose the name Francis followed the same path, to honor "the poor monk" Francis of Assisi (died 1226) and his striving to live in simplicity.
His first papal trip outside Rome went to the Italian refugee island of Lampedusa. He urged the Church to become more tolerant and criticized economic inequality and the cover-up of sexual abuse.
The journalists who followed him around the world every year in the papal plane were also amazed by Bergoglio's down-to-earth style and his habit of greeting everyone on the plane. When TT was on site during his trip to Sweden in 2016, a Spanish author handed Bergoglio his book "The Joyful Pope", who laughed and exclaimed:
"The Joyful Pope". I hope that's what I am.
Health Problems
Francis also engaged in environmental policy and issued an encyclical in 2015, calling for the world to accept lower economic growth to save the climate.
As pope, he never quite lived up to the enormous expectations.
Partly, there was resistance from more conservative parts of the Church, who saw him as too much of a left-wing ideologue. He was also more conservative than many of his supporters had hoped, for example, in his view on same-sex relationships.
Partly, health and age played a role. At the age of 21, he had part of his lung removed after a severe lung infection. In recent years, he suffered from chronic knee problems and had to use a wheelchair several times.
On February 14 this year, Pope Francis was hospitalized at Gemelli Hospital in Rome with a respiratory infection and fever. A few days later, the Vatican announced that he had been diagnosed with double-sided pneumonia and kidney problems.
He was discharged in March, visibly marked by the illness, and only appeared a few times after that. As recently as last Sunday, on Easter Sunday, he spoke to the crowds on St. Peter's Square in Rome.
There can be no peace without freedom of religion, freedom of thought, freedom of expression, and respect for each other's opinions, he said.
Pope Francis was 88 years old.
