Anecdotes

The first pope from the Americas and from the Southern Hemisphere. He is also the first non-European pope since Syrian-born Pope Gregory III in 741.

Has spoken out against the death penalty.

Used the word "genocide" to describe the mass killing of Armenians under Ottoman rule during World War I.

He is a polyglot, his native language is Spanish; he speaks Italian, Piedmontese, English, German, Portuguese, French, Ukrainian, and of course, Latin (the official language of the Holy See).

Named Time magazine's Person of the Year for 2013.

One of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World. [April 2014].

He has publicly spoken in favor of environmental measures to combat climate change.

Elected pope on March 13, 2013 to succeed Pope Benedict XVI who had resigned earlier that year.

The Vatican hosted the three-day international, interfaith colloquium on 'The Complementarity of Man and Woman' sponsored by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In his opening remarks Pope Francis stated that, 'It is ever more evident that the decline of the culture of marriage is associated with increased poverty and a host of other social ills that disproportionately affect women, children and the elderly. It is always they who suffer the most in this crisis... Children have a right to grow up in a family with a father and a mother capable of creating a suitable environment for the child's growth and emotional development' [17 November 2014].

In a July 2010 letter to Carmelite nuns of Buenos Aires, then-Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio asked them to pray for the defeat of a gay marriage bill and criticized it in strong language stating, "Let's not be naïve: This is a not simple political struggle, but an attempt to destroy God's plan. It is not just a bill but a move of the Father of Lies, who seeks to confuse and deceive the children of God," he wrote.

During his 2018 visit to Chile, he quoted a few lines from the song 'Aquí' by Chilean rock band La Ley.

He is the first Pope since the fifteenth century to succeed an abdicated pontiff (since Martin V succeeded Gregory XII in 1417, when the papal throne had been vacant for nearly two years).

He is the first pope to choose an unused regnal name in over a millennia -- the previous was Pope Lando who died in 914.

Reasserted the Catholic Church's conservative approach to various social issues in 2014, by reaffirming the doctrinal evaluation and criticism of U.S. nuns by the Holy See under his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI. An assessment was made which accused the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, which represents about 57,000 sisters, or 80% of U.S. nuns, of promoting "radical feminist themes" and ignoring the Vatican's hard line on same-sex marriage and abortion. The original dispatch set up reeducation programs to bring nuns back into line, alleging that leaders of U.S. orders had challenged the church's teachings on women's ordination and ministry to homosexuals.

Excommunicated priest who backed women's ordination and gay marriage; Father Greg Reynolds of Melbourne, Australia in 2013.

Merited a place in TIME magazine's "The 100 Most Influential People" issue with an homage penned by Cardinal Blase J. Cupich. (mai 2017)

He is known as a vocal critic of capitalism and has spoken in favor of wealth redistribution.

He is the first non-European Pope since Gregory III in 741.

He is the first Pope from either American continent.

Anytime rumors circulated that he was to abdicate --he denied it. There was big fear that if two popes in a row are to abdicate, the papal throne could end up being abolished (might be unable to elect a new pope).

In early January 2023, he became the first reigning pope to be present at a mourning/funeral of a pope emeritus since Pope Boniface VIII was at the mourning of Pope Emeritus Celestine V in 1296.

Called for a global ban on parenting via surrogacy, calling the practice "deplorable" and a grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child.

Met with Argentine President Javier Milei in a private audience in 2024. The two spoke for over an hour and exchanged gifts between them. Milei also added a personal touch by including dulce de leche and lemon biscuits from their native Argentina in his gifts to the pontiff.

The Vatican published a "declaration" from its doctrinal office titled "Dignitas Infinita," or "infinite dignity," in which Pope Francis strongly affirmed the "inherent" dignity of every human being and identified a list of assaults against it: abortion, surrogate childbearing, euthanasia, capital punishment, poverty, war, the travails of migrants, human trafficking, sexual abuse, marginalization of the disabled and digital violence.

During his reign as pontiff, The Vatican rejected the concept of gender fluidity and declared that sex change is a threat to human dignity.