Pope Francis and Pope Leo XIV
After Benedict XVI resigns, an Argentine Jesuit becomes Pope Francis and pushes the church toward the poor and the peripheries; after his death in 2025, the American-born Leo XIV is elected.
- The Great Reformer: Francis and the Making of a Radical Pope — Austen Ivereigh, Henry Holt (2014)
- Saints and Sinners: A History of the Popes — Eamon Duffy, Yale University Press (2014)
- Leo XIV (official pages of the Holy See) — Holy See, Holy See
On 11 February 2013 Benedict XVI announced that he would resign, the first pope to do so in nearly six centuries. On 13 March the conclave elected Jorge Mario Bergoglio, archbishop of Buenos Aires, who took the name Francis, the first pope from the Americas and the first Jesuit. He refused the papal apartments, paid his own hotel bill and, asked about gay priests, replied, “Who am I to judge?”
- The Great Reformer: Francis and the Making of a Radical Pope — Austen Ivereigh, Henry Holt (2014)
- Saints and Sinners: A History of the Popes — Eamon Duffy, Yale University Press (2014)
His encyclical Laudato si’ (2015) made care for the environment a Catholic duty; Amoris Laetitia (2016) opened a cautious path to communion for some divorced and remarried Catholics; and Fratelli Tutti (2020), on human fraternity, followed a joint declaration with the Grand Imam of al-Azhar. He gave women and lay people votes at a worldwide synod, and in 2023 allowed priests to bless same-sex couples informally, a move many African bishops refused to apply. He died on Easter Monday, 21 April 2025.
- The Great Reformer: Francis and the Making of a Radical Pope — Austen Ivereigh, Henry Holt (2014)
- Saints and Sinners: A History of the Popes — Eamon Duffy, Yale University Press (2014)
On 8 May 2025 the cardinals elected Robert Francis Prevost, born in Chicago in 1955, an Augustinian friar who served for years as a missionary and then bishop in Chiclayo, Peru, and holds Peruvian citizenship. As Leo XIV, the first pope from the United States, he chose his name in honour of Leo XIII, who confronted the industrial revolution, and he has said the church must now respond to the revolution of artificial intelligence. His first major document, Dilexi te (October 2025), was on love for the poor, and his first journey took him to Turkey and Lebanon in late 2025.
- Leo XIV (official pages of the Holy See) — Holy See, Holy See
Francis returned the church to the gospel's priorities: mercy, the poor, migrants and creation. He made the church listen through the synod, and treated people on the margins, including divorced and gay Catholics, as members rather than problems.
- The Great Reformer: Francis and the Making of a Radical Pope — Austen Ivereigh, Henry Holt (2014)
Francis created confusion on doctrine and morals, especially over communion for remarried Catholics and blessings for same-sex couples, governed in an authoritarian style and needlessly restricted the traditional Latin Mass.
- Saints and Sinners: A History of the Popes — Eamon Duffy, Yale University Press (2014)
Why it matters today
Francis changed the tone of the papacy and opened debates that are still unresolved, on divorce and remarriage, LGBTQ Catholics, women's roles and how the church makes decisions. Leo XIV, a missionary who spent decades in Peru, now leads a church that is increasingly southern, polarised in the West and still recovering from the abuse crisis.