Pope Francis: why his papacy mattered for Africa

THE death of Pope Francis at his residence on 21 April 2025 marks the end of a significant era for the Vatican and the global Catholic following of 1.3 billion faithful.

- STAN CHU ILO

The first pope from the Americas and also the first to come from outside the west in the modern era, Pope Francis was elected leader of the Catholic church on March 13, 2013. By the time the Argentinian Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio was elected pope in 2013 there was a general feeling that the Catholic church was reaching the end of an era. At the time, the church was beset by crises, from corruption to clerical sexual abuse.

It meant therefore that Cardinal Bergoglio was elected by the Catholic cardinals with a mandate to clean up the church and reform the Vatican and its bureaucracy. Three key things defined his papal role and legacy.

First is concentrating on the core competence of the church: serving the poor and the marginalised. This is what the founder of the Christian religion, Jesus Christ, did.

Francis focused the Catholic church and the entire world on one mission: helping the poor, addressing global inequalities, speaking for the voiceless, and placing the attention of the world on those on the periphery. He also chose to live simply, forsaking the pomp and pageantry of the papacy.