'The people's Pope': his greatest reforms and controversies

POPE Francis died on Easter Monday, aged 88, the Vatican announced.

- JOEL HODGE and ANTONIA PIZZEY

The head of the Catholic Church had recently survived being hospitalised with double pneumonia.

There were many unusual aspects of Pope Francis’ papacy.

From the very start of his papacy, Francis seemed determined to do things differently and present the papacy in a new light. Even in thinking about his burial, he chose the unexpected: to be placed to rest not in the Vatican, but in the Basilica of St Mary Major in Rome - the first pope to be buried there in hundreds of years.

Vatican News reported the late Pope Francis had requested his funeral rites be simplified.

"The renewed rite," said Archbishop Diego Ravelli, "seeks to emphasise even more that the funeral of the Roman Pontiff is that of a pastor and disciple of Christ and not of a powerful person of this world".

Straddling a line between "progressive" and "conservative", Francis experienced tension with both sides. In doing so, his papacy shone a spotlight on what it means to be Catholic today. Francis was deemed not progressive enough by some, yet far too progressive by others.

His apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia (an official papal teaching on a particular issue or action), ignited great controversy for seemingly being (more) open to the question of whether people who have divorced and remarried may receive the Eucharist.

He also disappointed progressive Catholics, many of whom hoped he would make stronger changes on issues such as the roles of women, married clergy, and the broader inclusion of LGBTQIA+ Catholics.

The reception of his exhortation Querida Amazonia was one such example. In this document, Francis did not endorse marriage for priests, despite bishops’ requests for this.

He also did not allow the possibility of women being ordained as deacons to address a shortage of ordained ministers. His discerning spirit saw there was too much division and no clear consensus for change.