By: Isabela Menezes (Grade 3)

Unfortunately, earlier this year, on April 21st, the world lost one of the most important people to ever exist, our dear Pope Francis. The cause of his death was officially registered as a stroke followed by a cardiac arrest. As a way of showing care and respect for his passing, more than two hundred and fifty thousand people attended his funeral. So, I decided to write an article talking about his life and achievements as a way of honoring him.

Jorge Mario Bergoglio was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1936. He grew up with many catholic influences coming from his family, which eventually helped him follow a path towards religiosity. When he was nineteen years old, he decided to enter the archdiocesan seminary and start his process at becoming a member in the catholic church. Francis was so committed to his studies that at 34 years old he had already completed all his training including a theology course. He became Buenos Aires’s archbishop in 1998, and cardinal and primate of Argentina in 2001.

Finally, in 2013, Jorge was elected during a conclave in the Vatican and became the first ever Latin American pope in history. As a way of paying homage to Saint Francis of Assisi, he decided to take the name Pope Francis. His papacy was marked by his outstanding reforms on the catholic community and his emphasis on concerns about current social justice, on the ecosystem’s precarious situation and on how important it is to spread love, care and humility. He also promoted inclusivity of the LGBTQIA+ community in the Church and allowed homosexual couples blessings, although he didn’t stand by in the same way with sex couples marriages.

To this day, his legacy of fraternity and zeal is followed by many people, including the current pope, Leo XIV. I don’t know about you, but I hope that he also spreads hopeful messages and charisma around the whole world.

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