Biography:The current pope of the Roman Catholic Church.
Francis has been noted for his humility, his concern for the poor, and his commitment to dialogue as a way to build bridges between people of all backgrounds, beliefs, and faiths.
He has brought a simpler and less formal approach to the papacy and helped return its focus to social justice and away from identity politics.
Thus while maintaining the Church's teaching against homosexual acts and abortion, he has stated that gay people should not be marginalized and allowed priests to absolve women of the "sin" of abortion.
2013-03-13 Argentine Catholic Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio (76) is elected the new pope, taking the papal name Pope Francis
2013-03-17 Pope Francis delivers his first Angelus prayer and blessing
2013-03-28 Pope Francis becomes the first Pope to wash the feet of women in the Maundy Thursday service
2013-05-12 Pope Francis canonizes the 813 martyrs of Otranto as Saints
2013-05-16 Pope Francis calls for ethical financial reform to fight speculation
2013-12-06 Pope Francis gives his ascent to a proposal to create a permanent post on the Pontifical Commission on cases of sin and sexual abuse of minors
2013-12-11 Pope Francis is named Time magazine's person of the year
2014-02-24 Pope Francis creates a second Secretariat with the power to audit any Vatican agency at any time
2014-04-03 Pope Francis canonizes François de Laval, first bishop of Quebec, as a Catholic saint
2015-06-18 Pope Francis blames human selfishness for global warming in his encyclical, named "Laudato Si (Be Praised), On the Care of Our Common Home"
2015-09-01 Pope Francis tells priests to pardon women who have had an abortion, in a letter released by the Vatican
2015-09-08 Pope Francis announces moves to streamline the annulment process within the Catholic Church
2015-09-20 Pope Francis meets Fidel Castro in Havana, on the 1st day of his tour of Cuba
2015-09-22 Pope Francis greeted by President Obama and Vice President Biden as he arrives at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, for his 6 day tour of the US
2017-05-13 Portuguese children Francisco and Jacinta Marto (died 1919 & 1920 aged 10 & 9 in flu epidemic) canonized by Pope Francis at Fátima - the youngest Catholic saints not to die as martyrs
2017-11-27 Pope Francis begins a three-day trip to Myanmar, amid the Rohingya refugee crisis
2018-01-15 Pope Francis arrives in Chile for a three-day visit amid child sexual abuse claims against church clergy
2018-03-06 Pope Francis announces that murdered Salvadorean Archbishop Óscar Romero will be made a saint
2018-05-18 All of Chile's 34 Roman Catholic bishops offer their resignation to Pope Francis in wake of child sex scandal
2018-08-16 Pope Francis and the Vatican issues statement in support of the 300 victims of "predator priests" in Pennsylvania
2018-08-20 Pope Francis releases letter to all Catholics condemning sexual abuse atrocities and clerical cover-ups "We showed no care for the little ones; we abandoned them"
2018-08-26 Pope Francis asks for forgiveness in speech on child abuse in Dublin, during first official visit to Ireland since 1979
2018-08-26 Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, former US Vatican Ambassador, claims Pope Francis knew of and ignored sex abuse allegations against Cardinal Theodore McCarrick
2018-09-13 Pope Francis meets with leaders of the American Catholic Church in Rome to discuss sexual abuse
2018-10-13 Pope Francis defrocks two Chilean bishops for alleged sexual abuse of minors
2019-02-03 Pope Francis arrives in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on the first ever papal visit to the Arabian peninsula
2019-02-05 Pope Francis admits for the first time that clerics have sexually abused nuns
2019-02-16 Pope Francis defrocks ex-cardinal and archbishop of Washington Theodore McCarrick for sexually abusing minors and adults. First Cardinal to be removed for sexual abuse.
2019-02-24 Roman Catholic Church summit on paedophilia ends with Pope Francis promising more action and calling those guilty "tools of Satan"
2019-03-30 Pope Francis arrives in Rabat, Morocco, on his first-ever visit to the Magreb region of Northern Africa
2019-04-27 Pope Francis donates $500,000 for migrants stranded in Mexico trying to reach the US
2019-05-09 Pope Francis introduces new rules on reporting sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, criticized for not going far enough
2019-09-08 Estimated 1 million attend a mass held by Pope Francis near Antananarivo, Madagascar
2019-10-13 Pope Francis canonizes John Henry Newman, British theologian and Catholic priest as a saint
2019-11-29 Wood fragment believed to be from Jesus' manger returned to Bethlehem after 1400 years by Pope Francis
2020-04-12 Pope Francis calls for the world to be united in the face of COVID-19 as he delivers his Easter message from an empty St Peter's Cathedral in Rome
2020-10-21 Pope Francis backs same-sex civil unions in interview in documentary film "Francesco"
2020-10-25 Pope Francis announces appointment of 13 new cardinals including 1st African American Wilton Daniel Gregory
2021-01-14 Pope Francis, 84, and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI receive their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine
2021-03-06 On his first visit to Iraq, Pope Francis meets with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in the Shiite cleric's home in Najaf
2021-07-04 Pope Francis undergoes surgery to remove part of his colon in Rome
2022-05-15 Pope Francis canonizes Dutch Roman Catholic priest and anti-Nazi activist Titus Brandsma (1881-1942) as a saint
2022-07-24 Pope Francis arrives in Edmonton, Canada, to begin “a penitential trip” to meet with and apologize to First Nation, Métis and Inuit communities for their treatment at church-run residential schools
2023-01-05 Funeral for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI presided over by Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome
2023-01-31 Pope Francis lands in Kinshasa on a visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo, first papal visit to the country since 1985
2023-02-01 Pope Francis celebrates mass with around 1 million people in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, his second largest gathering
2023-12-18 Pope Francis will allow priests to bless same-sex couples, though not when connected to a civil or same-sex union
2024-01-08 Pope Francis says surrogate motherhood should be banned calling it "despicable" for commercializing pregnancy
2024-04-08 New Vatican document rejects concept of changing a person's biological sex despite Pope Francis' recent overtures to the Trans community
Benedict XV
Benedict XVI
Gregory XIII
Innocent X
Leo XIII
Pius XI