Share
Pope Francis, the first Latin American leader of the Roman Catholic Church, has died.
He was 88, and had suffered a serious bout of double pneumonia this year, but his death came as a shock after he had been driven around St. Peter's Square in an open-air popemobile to greet cheering crowds on Easter Sunday.
Francis had on Sunday made his first prolonged public appearance since being discharged on March 23 from a 38-day hospital stay for pneumonia.
In an Easter Sunday message read aloud by an aide as the pope looked on from the main balcony of St. Peter's Basilica, the pontiff had reiterated his call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
REUTERS
