The striking images of the Pontificate of François

On Place Saint-Pierre invaded by the crowd who came for his usual weekly audience, François narrowly catches a rosary launched for him by a faithful.

Selfies with young people, in the Saint-Augustin church, in Rome, where the pope has just celebrated mass on Saint Augustine day, August 28. A month earlier, during the WYD in Brazil, he encouraged young people to act: “Do not stay on the balcony of life, Jesus did not stay there. He got involved! Engage yourself there as Jesus did. »»

In Assisi, the Pope visits the Serafico Institute, devoted to young people with multiple disabilities. Like François d’Assise (1182-1226), the saint whose name he adopted a few months earlier, he thus manifests his preference for the poorest, the little ones, the humble.

For his first trip abroad, Pope Francis met young people around the world, in Rio de Janeiro, during the 28th World Youth Days, from July 23 to 28.

On the last day of his visit to Brazil, on Copacabana beach, hundreds of thousands of people gathered to participate (often thanks to the screens) in the mass he celebrated.

His security helmet carries the words “welcome to Sardinia, holiness”. François gives a pastoral visit of a day in Sardinia to meet workers, business representatives, prisoners, on September 22, 2013.

Unforeseen judgment of François, in Bethlehem, on May 25, 2014, in front of the separation wall built by Israel. His gesture speaks of himself, also recalling, as in mirror, the prayer of the Jews on the Western wall, known as lamentations, in Jerusalem.

On May 26, on the wall of the lamentations, below the esplanade of the Temple of Jerusalem, the most sacred place of Judaism, the Pope put a hand on the rock, for several minutes of silence, before slipping a message between the stones.

The day before, he invited the Israeli Shimon Peres and the Palestinian Mahmoud Abbas to come to his home, to the Vatican, for a “sincere prayer” for peace. A highly symbolic meeting which took place a few days later.

François bowed to the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomée I. Both are attached to working on reconciliation between Catholic Christians and Orthodox, almost a thousand years after the Schism of 1054.

Basketball ball in balance on a pencil to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Catholic Italian sports center on June 7, 2014, on Saint-Pierre square, at the Vatican.

From November 28 to 30, the Pope went to Türkiye. On November 29, in Istanbul, he devoted the morning to a meeting with Muslims, and in the afternoon with Christians. In the famous blue mosque, it was greeted by the Grand Mufti of Istanbul Rahmi Yaran.

During the visit, the two men collected themselves. By a “silent worship”, François expressed his desire to promote dialogue between religions.

François received a saffron color stole from the Hindu priest Kurukkal Sivasri T Mahadava during the interreligious meeting at the Mémorial Bandaranial Bandaranial, capital of Sri Lanka, January 13, 2015.

Pope Francis “outside program” visit during his trip to the Philippines.

On January 16, 2015, he went to the Anak-TNK Foundation, led by a French priest, Matthieu Dauchez, who welcomed the children of the streets of Manila.

At the popular soup of the Caritas Center, the Pope shares the meal during his pastoral visit to Florence and Prato (Italy), on November 10, 2015.

This March 26 afternoon, at the request of the Pope, the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican Museums open their doors to a homeless group of people so that they can benefit from a guided tour.

On July 12, at the Bañado Norte, a very poor and marshy cans of Asunción, capital of Paraguay, the pope was welcomed by shots of jubilation.

He came to meet the population and especially listen to it, on this last day of his trip to Latin America, largely devoted to the underprivileged.

During his trip to Philadelphia, the pope meets sixty men and eleven women detained in the Curran- from FROMHOLD CORRECTIONAL Center. He encourages them to “purify themselves” and “get back on the right way. »»

This November 30, residents of Bangui run around François’s papamobile, en route to the Koudoukou school. A trip under the sign of reconciliation between Christians and Muslims.

He calls on these “brothers” to reject hatred and violence together.

On Place Saint-Pierre, this April 23, 150 priests offer the sacrament of reconciliation in 70,000 young people who came to participate in the teenagers jubilee.

Pope Francis participates there to testify to divine mercy.

On August 24, 2016, an amateur earthquake, a small mountainous town in the province of Rieti in the northeast of Rome. François goes there to meditate and meet the survivors.

The pope gathers in front of the Shadhidlar Hiyabani, a monument to the dead heroes, in Baku, on October 2.

“We are all migrants. It is this message of hope that François comes to transmit this April 16, 2016, to migrants and refugees from the Moria detention center, near Mytilène, on the island of Lesbos.

The pope pleads, once again, so that the world finally shows a “common humanity. »»

Along the Río Bravo (or Río Grande depending on the country), at the foot of a “migrant cross” erected less than 100 meters from the border, the Pope praised the Mexican migrants who came to pray with him, on both sides of the border.

Holy Thursday mass in a home of young refugees (north of Rome). Pope Francis washes the feet of twelve asylum seekers, of different nationalities and religions.

A gesture to invite the international community to better accommodate refugee people.

In Fatima, the day before the canonization of two young shepherds, François and Jacinthe Marto, to whom the Virgin Mary appeared a hundred years earlier. François participated, this May 13, in the torchlight procession after dark, before the recitation of the Rosary.

On September 22 in Vilnius, the pope went to the sanctuary of the “Mother of Mercy”, pleading for a welcoming society which builds bridges, not walls, and favors mercy to judgment.

Happy laughing of François at the exit of the Sainte-Marie cathedral during his visit to Dublin, on August 25, on the occasion of the 9th world meeting of families.

The pope greets with respect Brother Jean-Pierre Schumacher, last survivor of Tibhirine, in the Saint-Pierre de Rabat cathedral, on March 31, second day of his trip to Morocco.

Last vigil of the 34th World Youth Days in Panama, chaired by the Pope, at Campo San Juan Pablo II, in the city of Panama, January 26.

François blessed a child before celebrating an outdoor mass, at the Zayed Sports City stadium in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, on February 5, in front of 135,000 faithful from all the Emirates.

On numerous occasions, during general audiences, the Pope went to meet groups and people who came to share this moment. With a very visible preference for people from the world of precariousness.

As if the outskirts of the world, of which this pope spoke so much, came to thank him for not having forgotten them. Beautiful gestures, simple and fraternal, have often accompanied each meeting.

When the Pope’s public hearings had to be suspended, it was thanks to live video that the Pope continued to address the faithful.

This June 3, he reacts in particular to the murder of George Floyd, this American from Minneapolis who died by suffocation during a police check who went wrong. “You cannot tolerate or stay blind in the face of acts of racism,” says the Argentinian pope.

This March 27, in the cold night and in front of a deserted Saint-Pierre square due to pandemic, the pope pray for the world. An impressive moment for a pontiff who knows how to take strong gestures.

Each ecumenical meeting is an opportunity to highlight the desire for dialogue of the Argentinian Pope. Here, it is the Hungarian Orthodox authorities who welcome him, in Budapest, during a trip that will also lead him to Slovakia.

In the midst of the ruins of the Syriac Catholic Church of the Immaculate Conception (al-Tahira-l-Kubra), a small assembly of Iraqis gathers around the Pope Pilgrim.

He came to pay tribute to the local communities, especially Christian, who endured months during the violence of the troops of the Islamic State.

The Pope is also a statesman at the head of an imposing diplomatic network. It is the French president, Emmanuel Macron, who visits him that day.

He will offer to the Jesuit Pope, for the occasion, two biographies of Saint Ignace de Loyola, including a rare edition dating from 1585.

As a sign of reception, the former Aboriginal populations in Canada share their traditional headgear with Pope Francis.

It is a moved assembly, sometimes angry, which receives its words expressing its pain in front of the suffering suffered by the indigenous children sent by force in the religious and secular schools of the country.

Pope Francise of the Mediterranean Pope, to honor the memory of died migrants while trying to join the European coasts.

On the occasion of the Mediterranean meetings, the pontiff came to invite the population of this cosmopolitan city, and the Catholics as a whole, to become the sign of the universal brotherhood.

At the invitation of Cardinal François Bustillo (in d.), Bishop of Ajaccio, reputed to be close to the Pope, François went to Corsica on December 15, 2024, to close a congress on popular piety.

Preceded by a controversy-The previous weekend, the Pope had not wanted to attend the reopening of Notre-Dame de Paris-, this unprecedented visit of a pope on the island of beauty aroused a keen craze of the Corsican people.