Reform, social justice and tackling abuse: 12 years of Pope Francis

During his 12 years as head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis was a voice for compassion and peace, reformed the Vatican government and took action against clerical child abuse. Here are some of the main achievements of the Argentine pontiff and the opposition he faced -- and what he left undone.

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Dealing with the worldwide scourge of sexual abuse by clergy and its cover-up was one of the biggest challenges for Pope Francis when he took office in 2013.

A 2018 trip to Chile proved a turning point. Francis initially defended a Chilean bishop against allegations he covered up the crimes of an elderly priest, demanding that the accusers show proof of his guilt. He later admitted making "grave mistakes" in the case -- a first for a pope. He summoned all of Chile's bishops to the Vatican, after which they all submitted their resignations.

Later that year, he stripped the cardinal title from abusive US cleric Theodore McCarrick, and in 2019 removed his status as a priest.Also in 2019, he held an unprecedented summit that heard from victims, where he promised an “all-out battle" against clerical abuse.

Concrete changes followed, from opening up Vatican archives to lay courts to making it compulsory to report suspicions of abuse and any attempts to cover it up to Church authorities. However, anything said in the confessional box remains sacrosanct -- and activists say he did not do enough. One campaigner, Anne Barrett Doyle, told AFP last year that the reforms had been "superficial".