Pope Francis, the first Latin American to lead the Catholic Church and a global voice for the marginalized, has died at the age of 88, the Vatican announced.
His death comes just weeks after he was released from a hospital in Rome, where he had been treated for a severe case of pneumonia in both lungs.
Elected in 2013, Francis broke centuries of tradition as the first Jesuit pope and the first from outside Europe in more than 1,200 years. Throughout his papacy, he championed social justice, emphasized mercy over dogma, and worked to bring the Church closer to the poor and excluded.
