HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS, who died on Easter Monday, 21 April, at the age of 88, came to the papacy in 2013 in circumstances that were more unusual and unsettling than the Church had seen for centuries. Benedict XVI, in advancing age and declining health, had done what then seemed unthinkable and had resigned, preferring to live out his old age in the relative privacy of retirement. It was a stark contrast to John Paul II, whose long and painful decline towards his own death in 2005 was spent in the full glare of the media.
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Obituary: His Holiness Pope Francis, 1936-2025
HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS, who died on Easter Monday, 21 April, at the age of 88, came to the papacy in 2013 in circumstances that were more unusual and unsettling than the Church had seen for centuries.
The Catholic Herald
16 min read
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