The outsider His focus was on justice but he failed to heal deep divisions

Just three days before he was admitted to hospital for bronchitis in February, Pope Francis delivered a strongly worded message to the US about Donald Trump's attitude to migrants.

- Catherine Pepinster

In a letter sent to the country's Roman Catholic bishops, he made clear he disagreed with Trump's mass deportation plans for illegal migrants: "What is built on the basis of force, and not on the truth about the equal dignity of every human being, begins badly and will end badly." The sentiment was not only reserved for Trump. Throughout his 12 years as pope, Francis focused on the dignity of people, especially those viewed by others as outsiders whether migrants, prisoners, whom he often visited, or LGBTQ people.

"Who am I to judge?" he famously said when asked about his attitude towards gay men and women, a remark that contrasted starkly with his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, who once described homosexuality as a tendency "ordered towards an intrinsic moral evil".

This focus on outsiders stemmed from Francis's own experience. He grew up in Argentina, and was the child of migrants, whose family arrived in Buenos Aires in 1929, seeking a new start after scraping a living in rural Italy.