Pope Francis died on April 20 at age 88, ending a transformative papacy that began in 2013. He was the first Jesuit pope, first from the southern hemisphere, and took his name from St. Francis of Assisi. Known for austerity and advocacy for the oppressed, he criticized wars in Gaza and Ukraine, apologized to Indigenous communities in Canada, and made history in 2024 by attending the Venice Biennale—the first pope to do so—visiting the Holy See Pavilion at the Women's Prison on Giudecca.
This matters because Pope Francis uniquely engaged with the visual arts as a platform for social justice and environmental advocacy. His 2024 Venice Biennale visit, where he urged artists to "imagine cities that do not yet exist," underscored art's role in addressing marginalization and climate change. His death leaves the Vatican's vast art collection under new leadership, and his legacy as a pope who bridged faith and contemporary art will influence future cultural dialogues between the Church and the art world.