Here’s what happened today
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Pope Francis died at 7:35am [05:35 GMT], the Vatican has announced, without giving the cause of death.
The 88-year-old had suffered various ailments in his 12-year papacy, including most recently a case of bronchitis that kept him five weeks in hospital.
Following his discharge last month, the head of the Roman Catholic Church continued to preside over general audiences and made his final public appearance on Easter Sunday.
Cardinal Kevin Farrell, who oversees Vatican Church affairs, said Francis “taught us to live the values of the gospel with fidelity, courage, and universal love, especially in favour of the poorest and most marginalised”.
Farrell is due to preside over a rite tonight when the pope’s body will be placed into a casket.
No date has yet been set for the funeral, but a Vatican spokesman has said Francis’s coffin might be moved to St Peter’s Basilica as early as Wednesday to allow people to pay their respects.
World leaders have mourned Francis’s passing, with his home country of Argentina declaring a week of national mourning.
Orthodox patriarch hails late pope as ‘sincere friend’
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, has expressed sorrow over the death of Pope Francis, describing him as a “faithful friend” and “sincere friend of Orthodoxy”.
In a statement published by Greek media on Monday, Istanbul-based Bartholomew stated that Pope Francis has left an example of true humility and brotherly love.
He recalled a meeting in 2014 when they exchanged views in Jerusalem over the Easter festival, discussing the possibility of a common Easter celebration and united brotherly churches.
Francis had hoped they would be healthy enough to undertake a pilgrimage to Nicaea, now Iznik in Turkiye, where the first council of all Christian churches took place 1,700 years ago. According to Bartholomew, the pope said, “And if the Lord does not allow it, then perhaps our successors.”
The Orthodox churches have been independent for almost 1,000 years since the leaders of the Eastern Church in Byzantium and the Western Church in Rome excommunicated each other in 1054.
Pope Francis built ‘unprecedented relationship with Muslim world’
No pope in history has built as close a relationship with the Muslim world as Pope Francis has done, Gerard O’Connell, Vatican correspondent at America Magazine, has told Al Jazeera.
“People respected him greatly because he respected the followers of all the other religions, including Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims,” O’Connell said.
Francis was also beloved in Africa, where he encouraged community building and stood up for the marginalised. “In his last trip to Africa, when he went to the Democratic Republic of Congo and to South Sudan, he was in a wheelchair,” O’Connell said. “In Africa, leaders do not appear in wheelchairs but are confined to their homes. His was a liberating message for many people in his situation.”
Overall, the pope transformed the Catholic Church “into a community that reaches out to people and is not judgmental, that seeks to reach out to those who are discarded by most of the world,” the correspondent said
