Vatican City: Pope Francis has died at the age of 88 after a prolonged illness, the Vatican announced on Monday. The pontiff, who was the first Latin American leader of the Roman Catholic Church, became pope in 2013 after his predecessor, Benedict XVI, resigned.
The pope had suffered various ailments in his 12-year papacy. He had survived a serious bout of double pneumonia recently.
"Dear brothers and sisters, it is with profound sadness I must announce the death of our Holy Father Francis," Cardinal Kevin Farrell announced on the Vatican's TV channel.
"At 7:35 this morning the Bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the house of the Father."
The process for choosing a new pope - the conclave - generally starts around 15 and 20 days after the death of a pontiff.
Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Argentina, was the first pope from the Americas. He was elected pope on March 13, 2013, at age 76, surprising many Church watchers who had seen the Argentine cleric, known for his concern for the poor, as an outsider.
He inherited a Church that was under attack over a child sex abuse scandal and torn by infighting in the Vatican bureaucracy, and was elected with a clear mandate to restore order.
But as his papacy progressed, he faced fierce criticism from conservatives, who accused him of trashing cherished traditions. He also drew the ire of progressives, who felt he should have done much more to reshape the 2,000-year-old Church.
While he struggled with internal dissent, Francis became a global superstar, drawing huge crowds on his many foreign travels as he tirelessly promoted interfaith dialogue and peace, taking the side of the marginalised, such as migrants.
Over 12 years, he had reorganised the Vatican's bureaucracy, written four major teaching documents, made 47 foreign trips to more than 65 countries, and created more than 900 saints.
Overall, Francis was widely seen as trying to open the staid global Church to the modern world. Among major decisions, he had allowed priests to offer blessings to same-sex couples on a case-by-case basis and had appointed women to serve as leaders of Vatican offices for the first time.
He had also held five major Vatican summits of the world's Catholic bishops to discuss contested issues such as women's ordination and changing the Church's sexual teachings.
