88-year-old Pope Francis expires .... weeks after battling double pneumonia :::: last tweet read -- "..... we were not made for death but for life"

Roman Catholic church.... ought to “come out of herself and go to the peripheries”

Paradoxically, in his first words from the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica in 2013, then the newly elected Pope Francis, had told the packed square :

“You all know that the duty of the conclave was to give a bishop to Rome. It seems that my brother cardinals have come almost to the ends of the earth to get him.”

 Pope Francis dies aged 88, day after celebrating Easter

The 88-year-old Pope Francis died on Monday, the Vatican announced, weeks after battling double pneumonia.

The pontiff took on church traditionalists and rightwing populism, making powerful enemies on the way

Barely a day Pope Francis captured the essence of life and living in his final tweet, which read: 

"Christ is risen! These words capture the entire meaning of our existence, for we were not made for death but for life."

Pope Francis shared powerful final tweet celebrating life before passing away

Leaders worldwide expressed condolences after Pope’s death

Francis remembered for justice, compassion, and reconciliation

Pope Francis, 88, who was recovering from double pneumonia, has died at his residence in Casa Santa Marta, the Vatican said in a video statement on Monday.

"At 7:35 this morning, the Bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the home of the Father. His entire life was dedicated to the service of the Lord and of his Church, announced the Vatican administrator, Cardinal Kevin Ferrell.  

Pope Francis, despite his failing health, appeared in a wheelchair on Sunday. In his last message, he emphasised the importance of freedom and peace at a time when the world is witnessing large-scale conflicts. He stressed the importance of freedom of religion and expression, stating that they were essential for global peace.   

The first Latin American leader of the Roman Catholic Church did not attend the annual Good Friday procession for the third year in a row. The Pope met US's Vice President JD Vance briefly on Sunday morning even though he refused to meet him officially due to the Donald Trump administration's ongoing crackdown on immigration, according to some reports.

Under the scholarly and traditionalist Benedict XVI, a bunker mentality had developed in Rome. 

Increasingly, the German pope had defined the church through its hostility to ongoing secularisation and alleged relativism in the west. The Vatileaks affair, evidence of high-level financial corruption and, above all, public outrage at revelations of clerical sexual abuse plunged the church into a reputational nadir. 

Within the Vatican itself, poisonous cliques fought to preserve and extend their power bases, with the increasingly frail Benedict only nominally in charge.

Francis’s approach was to follow in the footsteps of one of his heroes, Pope John XXIII, who said on the eve of the modernising Second Vatican Council in 1962 that he wished to “open the window and let in some fresh air”. 

In a memorable dressing down of the Vatican’s civil service, the first non-European Pope of modern times railed against a “pathology of power” and excoriated insiders who “feel themselves ‘lord of the manor’ – superior to everyone and everything”. 

The Roman Catholic church, he said, needed to “come out of herself and go to the peripheries”; to become “a church of the poor for the poor” and a “field hospital for the faithful”.