The Holy Father, Pope Francis has died at the age of 88 the Vatican confirmed on Monday.
The Pope, who had been recovering from several weeks in hospital with a respiratory infection, passed away at 7:35am Rome time on Easter Monday at Casa Santa Marta.
The Holy Father had made a surprise appearance just a day earlier, greeting people from the popemobile in St Peter's Square after appearing on the central balcony of Saint Peter's Basilica after Easter Sunday Mass.
Pope Francis was elected Pope in 2013, taking over from Pope Benedict XVI, the first Pope to retire voluntarily in almost 600 years
He was both the first Pope from the Americas and the southern hemisphere. He was also the first non-European Bishop of Rome since Syrian-born Gregory III died in 741. He was also the first Jesuit to be elected to the Chair of St Peter.
He had been hospitalised at Rome's Gemelli Hospital in February with a respiratory infection and remained there for more than a month. He was discharged on March 23.
Since leaving hospital, he had been ordered to rest for a two-month period but made several surprise appearances across Vatican City in the lead up to Holy Week. His appearance at Sunday's Easter Mass was the latest of these surprise public appearances.
Australian Catholic Bishops Conference President, Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB, said Pope Francis would be remembered as a man of simplicity, humility and compassion.
“The sad news of the death of Pope Francis, while it does not come as a surprise given his age and his declining health in recent years, will be received with great sadness by Catholics, and by people of good will, all over the world,” Archbishop Costelloe said.
“When Cardinal Bergoglio appeared on the balcony overlooking Saint Peter’s Square on 14 March 2013, and was introduced to the world as the newly-elected Pope Francis, his simplicity and humility set the tone for a papacy which would be marked by an emphasis on the mercy and compassion of God, and on the Church’s vocation to be a sign and bearer of that merciful love in an increasingly troubled world.
“His famous description of the Church as a field hospital where wounds could be healed and hearts could be warmed was a call to a renewal of the Church’s life and mission, grounded in a return to Christ as the source and inspiration of everything the Church sought to do and to be.
“The 12 years of the papacy of Pope Francis were not without controversy. His constant call that the Church should be open to everybody caused some to fear that he was putting at risk the integrity of the Church’s faith and moral teaching.
“He himself insisted, however, that he was ‘a loyal son of the Church’ who, in recognising his own sinfulness, had come to understand that it was the task of the Church, as it was the task of Christ, to embrace people in their brokenness and fragility and lead them to healing and wholeness.”
Funeral arrangements for the deceased pontiff have yet to be announced.
Requiescat in pace.