Pope Francis: 1936 — 2025

Pope Francis’ papacy was marked by reform, resistance, and contradictions. Will his legacy endure?

Pope Francis attends the festival of families at Croke Park on 25 August , 2018 in Dublin, Ireland. Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

The pontificate of Jorge Mario Bergoglio - who has died aged 88 - was marked to a degree unknown in the modern history of the papacy by vitriolic criticism and bitter opposition at the highest levels of the Church.

This was true in the Vatican itself but also in right-wing Catholic circles in Italy, France, Germany and particularly in the United States. This opposition was driven in the main by deep-rooted distaste for the direction in which the Argentinian Pope was taking the Church.