Key dates in the life of Pope Francis

Pope Francis greets the crowd during an audience to the Padre Pio Prayer Groups, in Vatican on February 6, 2016. Pope Francis died on April 21, 2025. [AFP]

Here are some key dates in the life of Pope Francis, the first Jesuit and Latin American pope, who died on Monday aged 88:

- December 17, 1936: Jorge Mario Bergoglio is born in Buenos Aires to an accountant and a housewife from an Italian emigrant family.

- September 21, 1953: Receives his calling to become a priest. He later described being moved to go to church while heading to a school event, a day that "changed my life".

- 1957: Undergoes an operation to remove part of his lung.

- March 11, 1958: After studying chemical engineering at university, he joins the Jesuit order as a novice.

- December 13, 1969: Ordained as a priest. On July 31, 1973, he becomes leader of Argentina's Jesuits, a position he holds for six years.

- 1980: Amid tensions in the Jesuit order, returns to work as parish priest and rector at a college in San Miguel, near the capital. In 1986 he goes to Germany and later, Argentina's second city Cordoba. He returns to Buenos Aires in 1992 as auxiliary bishop.

- February 28, 1998: Appointed archbishop of Buenos Aires.

- February 21, 2001: Made cardinal by John-Paul II.

- March 13, 2013: Elected 266th pope after his predecessor Benedict XVI resigns. He chooses the name Francis in reference to Francis of Assisi, patron saint of the poor.

- July 8, 2013: Makes first trip outside Rome to the Italian island of Lampedusa, a major gateway to Europe for migrants, where he castigates the "globalisation of indifference." Three years later, he will bring back 12 families from a migrant camp in Lesbos, Greece.

- July 11, 2013: Launches a reform of the Vatican's penal code to fight sexual abuse against minors and corruption within the Church.

- July 29, 2013: Signals a more tolerant church when he says on a flight back from Brazil that "if someone is gay and is searching for the Lord and has good will, then who am I to judge him?"

- June 18, 2015: Francis publishes his second encyclical, "Laudato Si'" dedicated to environmentalism. The letter urges action against climate change.

- February 12, 2016: Holds a historic meeting with the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, Kirill, nearly 1,000 years after the schism between the Eastern Church and Rome.

- May 23, 2016: Historic audience at the Vatican with Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, the grand imam of Cairo's prestigious Al-Azhar mosque.

- April 11, 2018: Francis acknowledges "grave errors" in his handling of child sexual abuse cases in Chile and asks for forgiveness.

- September 22, 2018: Francis announces the first-ever agreement between China and the Holy See over bishop appointments.

- March 27, 2020: As much of Europe shuts down due to coronavirus, Francis delivers an "Urbi et Orbi" address alone in a deserted St Peter's Square.

- October 21, 2020: In a documentary, says he is in favour of same-sex civil unions.

- March 6, 2021: During the first ever papal visit to Iraq, meets the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

- July 4, 2021: Undergoes successful colon surgery, spending 10 days in hospital.

- June 5, 2022: New Apostolic Constitution comes into force, completing a major reform of the governance of the church that he began when he took office.

- January 5, 2023: Presides over the funeral of Benedict XVI in St Peter's Square.

- March 29, 2023: Admitted to hospital for a respiratory infection, and stays three nights.

- June 7, 2023: Admitted to hospital for hernia surgery, staying nine nights.

- September 3, 2024: Embarks on epic, 12-day voyage, the farthest of his papacy, to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore -- at age 87.

- February 14, 2025: Admitted to hospital with bronchitis, which turns into double pneumonia.