28 April 2025 , 05:32
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Shortly before his death, Pope Francis donated almost all the money he had left to a juvenile prison in Rome. He contributed around €200,000 ($225,000) to pay off the mortgage for a pasta factory operating within the prison.
This was reported by The Economist, which highlighted key moments from Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s life and the instructions in his will.
Among other wishes, Francis asked to be buried in the papal Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore — "as far from the Vatican as decency would allow," the journalists noted.
Thus, the funeral procession had to travel six kilometers through streets lined with applauding crowds. When the official public ceremony ended and presidents and prime ministers hurried to catch their return flights, Rome’s poorest residents waited to welcome Francis’ body, laid in a simple wooden coffin.
Santa Maria Maggiore is located just a few hundred meters from the main train station, in a part of Rome dotted with cheap hotels — a neighborhood that has begun to gentrify but still has a high immigrant population.
"He avoided the worldly trappings of the papacy. He refused to move into the Apostolic Palace, choosing instead to live in a two-room suite in a Vatican guesthouse. He was never seen in the traditional shiny red papal shoes favored by his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, preferring worn black orthopedic shoes," The Economist wrote.
The article’s authors believe that through Francis’ life and passing, a message can be traced — that "the true place of his Church is on the margins of society." Furthermore, the late pontiff embodied a faith that did not reject doubt and uncertainty. Perhaps his most famous comment was his response to a question about LGBT people: "If a person is gay, seeks God, and has good will, who am I to judge?"
Now, cardinals gathering in about a week in the Sistine Chapel for the conclave face a choice: whether "to elect someone willing to explore further the areas Francis opened up, or to return to the more traditional Catholicism of his predecessors."
Technology & Business Editor