Francis Was the First Pope from Latin America
Pope Francis died on Easter Monday, aged 88. Francis had been admitted to hospital earlier this year with double pneumonia. While he was still recovering, he made a surprise appearance at Easter Mass at St. Peter’s Square on Sunday, where he blessed tens of thousands of worshippers. He died one day later, after a stroke and heart failure. The former head of the Roman Catholic Church is remembered for his legacy of speaking out for migrants, the marginalized and the environment.
The vast majority of popes over the past 21 centuries have been from Italy, counting 217 out of 266 pontiffs in total. Francis was from Argentina, making him the first pope to have hailed from Latin America and the first outside of Europe since the death of Syrian-born Gregory III in 741. France, Germany, modern-day Syria (formerly the Byzantine Empire) and Greece have been the next most common countries of origin. Since the office of pope has existed for nearly two millennia, many of the countries of origin of popes no longer exist and so they are here listed under their modern-day equivalents. For example, Tunisia represents the Africa Proconsularis, Croatia stands in for Dalmatia, Spain is Valencia and Turkey is Anatolia.
According to Al Jazeera, some of the cardinals who have been named as possible successors to Francis are Cardinal Peter Erdo (Hungary), Cardinal Pietro Parolin (Italy), Cardinal Peter Turkson (Ghana), Cardinal Luis Tagle (the Philippines), Cardinal Mario Grech (Malta) or Cardinal Matteo Zuppi (Italy). Pope Francis' funeral is scheduled to take place on Saturday at 10 am local time (4 a.m. ET), according to the Vatican.