President Donald Trump reacted to the death of Pope Francis Monday by writing on Truth Social “Rest in Peace Pope Francis!
“May God Bless him and all who loved him!” Trump added.
Trump met the pope in 2017 at the Vatican, during the president’s first term in office. Trump was joined by his wife Melania, his daughter Ivanka, her husband Jared Kushner and former U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
Trump shook the pope’s hands and said, “Thank you so much.”
Once the two shook hands, they were led into the pope’s private study and were seated across from one another. Trump told the pope it was “a very great honor.”The media was led out of the room, and the two talked for about 30 minutes.
A death verification ceremony for Pope Francis will happen at 2 p.m. ET today in the chapel adjacent to his Saint Martha residence inside Vatican City.
After the body lies in rest in the chapel, the cardinal serving as the pope’s camerlengo, the Vatican official who manages the papal household, will make the arrangements for the funeral. He is also tasked with running the Vatican until a new pope is elected. The current camerlengo is Cardinal Kevin Joseph Farrell, appointed by Francis in 2019.
The deceased pope will be dressed in his simple white cassock and red vestments, then placed in a simple wooden coffin. This will be carried in procession to St. Peter’s Basilica, where the public viewing will take place for the next three days.
A Vatican spokesperson said Monday that “the transfer of the body of the Holy Father to the Vatican Basilica for the homage of all the faithful could take place on Wednesday morning.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Pope Francis and President Donald Trump first met in 2017 at the Vatican in a cordial meeting amid papal criticisms of Trump’s border policies at the time.
Trump and the pope have tussled over immigration policies and the environment across the years, including Pope Francis taking swipes at political leaders who were working to build border walls in their country.
Trump was raised Presbyterian and is married to Catholic first lady Melania Trump.
“Builders of walls, be they made of razor wire or bricks, will end up becoming prisoners of the walls they build,” Pope Francis said in 2019 in an apparent swipe at Trump’s border policies. He continued, “I realize that with this problem [of migration], a government has a hot potato in its hands, but it must be resolved differently, humanely, not with razor wire.”
The comment was followed by a 2016 remark that anyone who builds a wall to keep migrants out of a country was “not a Christian.” Trump responded at the time: “For a religious leader to question a person’s faith is disgraceful.”
Pope Francis again took issue with Trump’s immigration policies this year, arguing in a letter that the forceful removal of people simply for their immigration status deprives them of their inherent dignity and “will end badly.”
Trump administration official Tom Homan , who serves as the country’s border czar, hit back at the latest Pope Francis critique with “harsh words.”
“I’ve got harsh words for the pope: I say this as a lifelong Catholic. He ought to focus on his work and leave enforcement to us. He’s got a wall around the Vatican, does he not?” Homan told Fox News in February.
Fox News’ Emma Colton contributed reporting.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres mourned the loss of Pope Francis Monday by saying that he “was a man of faith for all faiths — working with people of all beliefs and backgrounds to light a path forward.”
“Through the years, the United Nations was greatly inspired by his commitment to the goals and ideals of our organization — a message I conveyed in my meetings with him as Secretary-General,” Guterres said in a statement.
“In his historic 2015 visit to United Nations headquarters, he spoke of the organization’s ideal of a ‘united human family.’ Pope Francis also understood that protecting our common home is, at heart, a deeply moral mission and responsibility that belongs to every person,” Guterres added.
“Our divided and discordant world will be a much better place if we follow his example of unity and mutual understanding in our own actions,” he also said. “I offer my deepest condolences to Catholics and all those around the world inspired by the extraordinary life and example of Pope Francis.”
Former President Barack Obama described Pope Francis as “the rare leader who made us want to be better people.
“In his humility and his gestures at once simple and profound — embracing the sick, ministering to the homeless, washing the feet of young prisoners — he shook us out of our complacency and reminded us that we are all bound by moral obligations to God and one another,” Obama said Monday following Francis’ death.
“Today, Michelle and I mourn with everyone around the world — Catholic and non-Catholic alike — who drew strength and inspiration from the Pope’s example,” Obama added. “May we continue to heed his call to ‘never remain on the sidelines of this march of living hope.’”
Pope Francis, 88, the oldest pope in over a century, died Monday morning, though quiet discussions on who could succeed him have reportedly already begun.
While any male Catholic could in theory be chosen to sit in the papal seat, historically, succeeding popes have been selected from the Sacred College of Cardinals since 1378, according to Religion News Service.
Currently, there are 252 cardinals in the body who have been selected by the Holy Father to serve as his advisors and assistants.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, 70, of Italy, is the Vatican’s secretary of state and the highest-ranking diplomat in the Holy See, which is the governing body of the Catholic Church. He is believed to be among the cardinals most likely to be elected to the top position.
Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, 67, of the Philippines, is also believed to be a frontrunner among voting cardinals and serves as the pro-prefect for the section of first evangelization of the Dicastery for Evangelization, as well as president of the Interdicasterial Commission for Consecrated Religious.
After a pope dies, the Catholic Church chooses its next leader through an ancient electoral process called the “papal conclave.”
In practice, since at least 1276, the conclave gathers the church’s top bishops – called the College of Cardinals – from around the globe. Though there are more than 240 cardinals currently, only those under the age of 80 are eligible to vote in the conclave and the number of cardinal electors is limited to 120.
Nearly all prefects of Vatican offices lose their jobs when a pope dies, but a few stay on, including the foreign minister and the master of liturgical ceremonies, who play a key role in assembling the conclave.
The conclave takes place in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel and cardinals are kept in strict isolation to keep them far from any outside influence from the rest of the world. This isolation is so important in the process that even the name conclave comes from the Latin “con clavis,” which means “with key,” indicating how the cardinal electors are locked up while they deliberate over who will be the new pope.
There is also an emphasis on choosing a pope quickly to lessen the amount of time the church spends without a leader. The cardinals cast their first vote the day the conclave begins. They then cast votes at least twice every day after – in the morning and evening – until a pope is selected.
Fox News Digital’s Pilar Arias contributed to this report.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told “FOX & Friends” on Monday that today is a “solemn day for Catholics around the world” following the death of Pope Francis.
“I spoke to the vice president’s team this morning, and they expressed how excited and grateful they were for the opportunity to have met with the pope just yesterday. And of course, we know the pope has gone to be with the Lord this morning,” Leavitt said.
“And I spoke to the president about that as well and he has put out a statement to say, God bless the pope and all those who loved him. He touched millions of lives throughout his tenure as the head of the Catholic Church,” Leavitt added. “And so it’s a solemn day for Catholics around the world, and we are praying for all those who love the pope and believed in him.”
Dr. Marc Siegel, the senior medical analyst for Fox News, told “FOX & Friends” on Monday that Pope Francis may have suffered a “respiratory failure event” this morning prior to his death.
“What I heard from inside sources… I heard that there was a respiratory failure event this morning, Rome time, in the morning. Five to seven AM, where he was unable to catch his breath. We don’t know what caused that. It was likely due to another asthma-type event like he had in the hospital,” Siegel said.
“There are other things that occur. There are other things that may have occurred. When you have been sedentary for over a month like that and then you go home and you try to get up and you try to engage in therapy, a lot of things can go wrong at that point,” Siegel also said, referencing Francis’ recent hospital stay during which he had battled pneumonia for weeks.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan said Monday that “you couldn’t choreograph” the death of Pope Francis any better.
“We could never choreograph our own birth or death can we? That is always in God’s hands. But if you could choreograph it, you couldn’t choreograph it any better than what happened,” the Archbishop of New York told reporters at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
“The last time we saw him, Easter Sunday, the last words, a blessed Easter, as he gave us his blessing. The day that we believe Jesus rose from the dead and shares that victory with us, in which we trust by divine mercy, Pope Francis now shares an abundant – you couldn’t have choreographed it better,” Dolan added.
“And we thank him for that, in the way he lived and the way he died, he was a great teacher in which the pope is always called to be,” he also said.
Former President Joe Biden said Monday following the death of Pope Francis that “He was the People’s Pope — a light of faith, hope, and love.”
“He was unlike any who came before him. Pope Francis will be remembered as one of the most consequential leaders of our time and I am better for having known him,” Biden wrote in a statement on X.
“For decades, he served the most vulnerable across Argentina and his mission of serving the poor never ceased. As Pope, he was a loving pastor and challenging teacher who reached out to different faiths,” Biden continued.
“He commanded us to fight for peace and protect our planet from a climate crisis. He advocated for the voiceless and powerless. He made all feel welcome and seen by the Church. He promoted equity and an end to poverty and suffering across the globe,” Biden also said.
The funeral for Pope Francis will include many long-held traditions, but will also eschew some of the more intricate customs after the pope amended the Catholic Church’s papal funeral rights.
Francis died Monday at age 88, the Vatican announced.
While much of the tradition associated with papal funerals – which dates all the way back to ancient Rome – will continue, matters such as Francis’ coffin structure, his death verification process, burial location, and how he will be viewed and referred to during the ceremony, will be different from how it has been in the past.
Francis, who had battled pneumonia for weeks before being released from the hospital and appearing on Easter Sunday, had faced health complications for many years and had to have half of one of his lungs removed as a young person.
Francis’ move to change these papal funeral traditions, some of which date all the way back to ancient Rome, stemmed from a desire to emphasize that the pope is “that of a shepherd and disciple of Christ and not of a powerful man of this world,” according to Archbishop Diego Ravelli, the head of papal liturgical ceremonies who reportedly worked with Francis to help make the revisions. The rewrite was also preceded by the unusual circumstances of Pope Benedict XVI’s funeral, which deviated from traditional papal funerals on account of the fact he was a retired pope rather than a reigning one.
The new funeral rites were formally approved by Francis in 2023 and were later published in the church’s liturgical guidelines in early 2024. Around the same time he was working on these revisions, the pope revealed during an interview with a Spanish-language broadcaster that he would not be buried in the grottoes of the Vatican like his predecessors, but rather at Santa Maria Maggiore basilica in Rome. The new papal rights make it permissible for future popes to be buried outside the Vatican as well.
Following the pope’s death there is a period of mourning that lasts nine days, known as the “novendiale,” which is kicked off by the pope’s funeral. After this, roughly two to three weeks following the pope’s funeral, a “conclave” is commenced inside the Sistine Chapel by the College of Cardinals to elect his successor.
During the conclave, Cardinals eligible to vote are locked inside the famous chapel where they will take secret votes to determine who is next in line for the papacy. Up to four votes per day can take place, and the voting does not stop until a majority of Cardinals select who is next up.
The conclave that elected Pope Francis in 2013 took roughly 24-hours and five ballots to come to a decision. His predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, was elected after just four ballots. However, while the process recently has been quite rapid, it can run much longer.
The last conclave to run over a month was in the 18th century. The longest conclave ever, during the 13th century lasted almost three years before Pope Gregory X was selected.
Fox News’ Alec Schemmel contributed reporting.
Pope Francis impacted the Catholic Church in multiple ways during his 12 years serving in the role.
Francis, who was elected to the papacy on March 13, 2013, was the first Jesuit to become pope.
Throughout his papacy, Pope Francis canonized nearly 1,000 people. This total, however, includes the “Martyrs of Otranto,” a group of 813 people who were killed on Aug. 14, 1480, in Otranto, Italy.
In August 2018, Pope Francis issued a letter revising the Catechism of the Catholic Church’s teaching on the death penalty.
“Pope Francis continued the recent tradition of previous popes, including from St. John Paul II, by escalating Catholic opposition to modern-day use of the death penalty,” Charles Camosy, professor of bioethics at the Creighton University School of Medicine, had told Fox News Digital.
The word “Catholic” translates to “universal,” and Pope Francis’ papacy also exemplified this. Francis visited places no previous pontiff had ever visited and appointed cardinals from non-traditional locations.
The next Pope could, and some analysts say should, come from Africa. Christianity is booming here. More people are becoming Catholics on the continent than anywhere else in the world, and millions of Africans proudly stay true to their faith despite persecution and death.
“As in previous years, increases (in the number of Catholics) were registered above all in Africa,” the Vatican said in October 2024, stating that 7,271,000 Africans joined the faith last year.
Fox News Digital understands there are three leading African papabile – “pope-able” candidates – Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, 65, from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, 76, from Ghana, and Guinea’s Cardinal Robert Sarah, who is viewed as an outsider due his being 80-years-old.
“Is it time? Certainly, it is an appropriate time for the leader of the Catholic Church to come from Africa for reasons that would capture the world’s imagination,” Greg Tobin, author of the novels “Conclave” and “Council,” and the biography of “Pope John XXIII, the Good Pope,” told Fox News Digital.
He added, “The Church has been growing at an amazingly rapid rate over the past few decades in the face of government opposition in many African nations, overt persecution of Christians and Catholics in many of the same nations, and violent opposition. Further, the leaders who have been appointed bishops and raised up as cardinals are generally highly educated, often in the West.”
Bells tolled Monday in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican to mark Pope Francis’ death.
Crowds can be seen gathering at the Vatican following the announcement earlier this morning that Francis passed away at the age of 88.
King Charles III said Monday that “My wife and I were most deeply saddened to learn of the death of Pope Francis” and “Our heavy hearts have been somewhat eased, however, to know that His Holiness was able to share an Easter Greeting with the Church and the world he served with such devotion throughout his life and ministry.”
“His Holiness will be remembered for his compassion, his concern for the unity of the Church and for his tireless commitment to the common causes of all people of faith, and to those of goodwill who work for the benefit of others,” Charles added in a statement.
“His belief that care for Creation is an existential expression of faith in God resounded with so many across the world,” he continued. “Through his work and care for both people and planet, he profoundly touched the lives of so many.”
“The Queen and I remember with particular affection our meetings with His Holiness over the years and we were greatly moved to have been able to visit him earlier in the month,” Charles also said. “We send our most heartfelt condolences and profound sympathy to the Church he served with such resolve and to the countless people around the world who, inspired by his life, will be mourning the devastating loss of this faithful follower of Jesus Christ.”
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said after the death of Pope Francis on Monday that the pontiff’s “memory and example of his compassion will long endure.”
“Australian Catholics and faithful around the world give thanks for the life of their Holy Father, Pope Francis, Bishop of Rome,” Albanese said in a statement. “Today, the prayers of more than a billion people – from all nations and every walk of life – go with Pope Francis to his rest.”
“Pope Francis’ compassion embraced all humanity,” he continued. “He urged us to remember all we hold in common and asked the world to hear the ‘cry of the earth’, our common home. He invited world leaders to join him and: ’emerge from the dark night of wars and environmental devastation in order to turn our common future into the dawn of a new and radiant day.'”
Albanese said Francis, the first pope from the Southern Hemisphere, was “close to the people of Australia,” adding that for Australian Catholics, he “was a devoted champion and loving father.”
“Pope Francis lived out his faith and vocation in word and deed. In his modest way of life, and at his weekly audiences, he demonstrated his commitment to peace, equality and inclusion,” Albanese said. “Pope Francis’ love for humanity was powerful and profound. The memory and example of his compassion will long endure.”
The prime minister said as people around the world mourn Francis’ death, “we celebrate the gift of his life and presence among us and we hold on to the resonant truth of Pope Francis’ final Easter homily.”
“The light quietly shines forth, even though we are in darkness; the promise of new life and a world finally set free awaits us; and a new beginning, however impossible it might seem, can take us by surprise, for Christ has triumphed over death,” Francis had said.
“May God welcome Pope Francis to eternal life,” Albanese concluded.
Pope Francis, then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Begoglio, was elected in March 2013 to succeed Pope Benedict XVI, becoming the first non-European pope in over 1,000 years.
He moved to reform the Catholic Church in multiple ways, including overhauling the Vatican Bank and tackling the coverup of sexual abuse. He also presented a softened approach to issues like divorced and remarried Catholics, and homosexuality.
As Pope Francis, he oversaw multiple synods on hot button issues, declared a year of mercy and produced a number of Vatican documents. He also attempted to harden the Church’s opposition to the death penalty, calling it “inadmissible.”
In 2015, he traveled to the United States, visiting Washington D.C., New York and Philadelphia.
He has generally been seen as more progressive than his predecessors, although he has not shifted Church teaching on issues like abortion and women priests as some liberals would have hoped. But he has also clashed with conservatives on issues including the Tridentine Mass, the acceptance of divorced and remarried Catholics for Holy Communion and his criticism of capitalism.
Fox News’ Adam Shaw and Cameron Cawthorne contributed to this report.
Vice President JD Vance, who had just met with Pope Francis on Sunday, issued a post on X following the pontiff’s passing.
“I just learned of the passing of Pope Francis. My heart goes out to the millions of Christians all over the world who loved him,” Vance noted.
“I was happy to see him yesterday, though he was obviously very ill. But I’ll always remember him for the below homily he gave in the very early days of COVID. It was really quite beautiful. May God rest his soul.”
Italy Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said after the death of Pope Francis on Monday that “a great man and a great pastor have left us.”
“Pope Francis has returned to the house of the Father,” Meloni said on X. “This news saddens us deeply, because a great man and a great pastor have left us.”
“I had the privilege of enjoying his friendship, his advice and his teachings, which never failed even in moments of trial and suffering,” she continued. “In the meditations of the Via Crucis, he reminded us of the power of the gift, which makes everything flourish again and is capable of reconciling what in the eyes of man is irreconcilable. And he asked the world, once again, for the courage to change direction, to follow a path that ‘does not destroy, but cultivates, repairs, protects.'”
Meloni added: “We will walk in this direction, to seek the path of peace, pursue the common good and build a more just and equitable society. His teaching and his legacy will not be lost. We greet the Holy Father with hearts full of sadness, but we know that he is now in the peace of the Lord.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog issued a post on X regarding the death of Pope Francis.
“I send my deepest condolences to the Christian world and especially the Christian communities in Israel – the Holy Land – on the loss of their great spiritual father, His Holiness Pope Francis. A man of deep faith and boundless compassion, he dedicated his life to uplifting the poor and calling for peace in a troubled world. He rightly saw great importance in fostering strong ties with the Jewish world and in advancing interfaith dialogue as a path toward greater understanding and mutual respect,” Herzog declared in the tweet.
“I truly hope that his prayers for peace in the Middle East and for the safe return of the hostages will soon be answered. May his memory continue to inspire acts of kindness, unity, and hope.”
Pope Francis died Monday morning at the age of 88, according to Cardinal Kevin Ferrell, the Vatican camerlengo.
“At 7:35 this morning, the Bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the house of the Father. His entire life was dedicated to the service of the Lord and His Church,” Farrell announced.
“He taught us to live the values of the Gospel with fidelity, courage and universal love, especially in favor of the poorest and most marginalized,” the announcement continued.
Farrell added: “With immense gratitude for his example as a true disciple of the Lord Jesus, we commend the soul of Pope Francis to the infinite merciful love of the One and Triune God.”
