The Argentine family of Pope Francis mourned his passing with a moving tribute Monday morning.
Pope Francis, 88, died from a stroke and heart failure, according to death certificate published by the Vatican.
‘The death of Pope Francis marks a profoundly symbolic moment in the history of humanity,’ his grandniece, Dr. Carolina Bergoglio wrote in a Facebook post.
‘He was a spiritual leader who knew how to speak to the heart of the world with humility, closeness, and a profoundly human perspective.’
‘He was a Pope who stepped down from his pedestal, who embraced the discarded, who spoke of ecology, migration, inclusion, and also of pain.’
‘His passing leaves us with a clear message: love more, judge less, and never forget that we are all brothers and sisters,’ Bergoglio, the daughter of Pope Francis’ third cousin, Jorge Bergoglio, added.
‘May his life inspire us to look beyond ourselves and continue walking with hope, even in the face of uncertainty. May his death not be a final point, but a new chapter of collective and universal consciousness. RIP.’
Pope Francis – the first Latin American pontiff – had been battling a respiratory illness that developed into double pneumonia and required a 38-day hospital stay at Gemelli Hospital in Rome.
Born José Mario Bergoglio, Pope Francis was ordained as a Catholic priest in 1969 and served as the Jesuit provincial superior in Argentina from 1973 to 1979.
In 1998, he became the archbishop of his hometown Buenos Aires before Pope John Paul II made a him a cardinal in 2001.
He was elected the head of the Catholic church on March 13, 2013 after Pope Benedict XVI resigned two weeks earlier because of his advanced age.
Pope Francis chose his papal name in honor of St. Francis of Assisi.
Pope Francis with his grandniece, Dr. Carolina Bergoglio (right), and her father and the late pontiff’s third cousin, Jorge Mario Bergoglio (left)
Pope Francis greets faithfuls from the popemobile after the Easter mass in St Peter’s Square at the Vatican on Sunday
Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who is a lawyer and director of an Italian company in Argüello, a city in the central Argentina province of Córdoba, recalled Pope Francis time as the Catholic church’s senior member.
‘When he was a cardinal, he used to send me his homilies,’ he told Argentine news outlet TN in March. ‘It was a shame he didn’t come to Argentina as Supreme Pontiff. Now he’s very ill, and we don’t know if he’ll make it.’
Jorge Mario Bergoglio and his children, including Dr. Carolina Bergoglio, were received by Pope Francis at the Vatican in 2014.
The were blown away with the respect strangers held for the pontiff after a family meal in Perugia.
‘We were having dinner at a trattoria, a magical place,’ he recalled.
‘When my son went to pay, the owner saw our last name on the credit card and asked if we were related to the Pope. My son told him yes, that his father was his cousin. The owner came out shouting, calling for all the diners,’ he said. ‘Limoncello for everyone!’
In 2021, Jorge Ernesto Bergoglio published the book, ‘Stories of immigration and the life of Piedmontese in a small town,’ that detailed the migration history of Alicia, a town in Córdoba.
One of the chapters, ‘A shipwreck that could have changed the history of the Church,’ revealed how Pope Francis’ grandfather, Juan Ángel Bergoglio, escaped death in 1927.
Pope Francis and his third cousin Juan Ángel Bergoglio during a family visit at the Vatican in 2014
Dr. Carolina Bergoglio shared a touching tribute for her uncle, Pope Francis, hours after his death on Monday
Pope Francis’ grandniece Dr. Carolina Bergoglio revealed an emotional tribute on Monday
Juan Ángel Bergoglio had purchased a ticket for the Principessa Mafalda ocean liner that sank October 25, 1927 and killed 314 people off the coast of Brazil.
At the time, he was in the process of selling his properties but ran into several delays that caused him to cancel and book a trip on another boat for January 1929.
The near-family tragedy crossed the future pontiff’s mind in 2011, two years before he was elected pope.
‘If the original plan had been followed, they would have drowned,’ Pope Francis wrote in an email to Jorge Mario Bergoglio.
