City Limits rounds up the latest housing and land use-related events, public hearings and affordable housing lotteries that are ending soon.
A meeting in 2024 about plans to demolish and rebuild NYCHA’s Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea Houses in Manhattan. NYCHA will hold two public hearings on the plan this week.
Welcome to City Limits’ NYC Housing Calendar, a weekly feature where we round up the latest housing and land use-related events and hearings, as well as upcoming affordable housing lotteries that are ending soon.
Know of an event we should include in next week’s calendar? Email us.
Upcoming Housing and Land Use-Related Events:
Tuesday, April 22 at 9:30 a.m.: The NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission will meet and take the first step in considering the following five Midtown Manhattan sites for individual landmark status: Barbey Building (15 West 38th St.); Fashion Tower (135 West 36th Street); the Furcraft Building (242-246 West 30th St.; 29th Street Towers (214 and 224 West 29th streets); and the Lefcourt Clothing Center (275 Seventh Ave.). More here.
Tuesday, April 22 at 2 to 5 p.m.: The City Planning Commission will hold a public scoping meeting on the Monitor Point proposal for Greenpoint, Brooklyn. More here.
Tuesday, April 22 at 6:30 p.m.: The Chelsea Neighbors Coalition will host a webinar to offer information on the city’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement (“DEIS”) for NYCHA’s plan to demolish and rebuild the Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea Houses. Registration is required. More here.
Wednesday, April 23 at 10 a.m.: The City Planning Commission will hold a public meeting regarding multiple land use applications. More here.
Wednesday, April 23 at 6 p.m.: NYCHA will hold a public hearing to garner feedback on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (“DEIS”) for its plan to demolish and rebuild the Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea Houses. The event will take place at the Fulton Senior Center, 119 9th Ave., Manhattan. More here.
Thursday, April 24 at 9:30 a.m.: The NYC Rent Guidelines Board, which votes on annual rent adjustments for rent-stabilized properties across the city, will hold a meeting to solicit feedback from invited landlord and tenant groups. More here.
Thursday, April 24 at10 a.m.: The NYC Council’s Committee on Finance will meet regarding bills related to notification requirements for certain real estate transactions, in an effort to combat deed theft. More here.
Thursday, April 24 at10 a.m.: The NYS Senate’s committees on housing and the judiciary will hold a joint public hearing on the state of New York City housing court. More here.
Thursday, April 24 at 6:30 p.m.: NYCHA will hold a public hearing to garner feedback on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (“DEIS”) for its plan to demolish and rebuild the Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea Houses. The event will take place at the Elliott-Chelsea Community Center, 441 West 26th St., Manhattan. More here.
Thursday, April 24, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.: The Department of City Planning will give an overview and take questions on its proposed citywide zoning text amendment that would create a City Planning Commission Special Permit for new Parcel Delivery Facilities in M, MX, and C8 districts. More here.
Saturday, April 25, 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.: The New York City Housing Authority – Resident Health Initiatives will host the 2025 NYCHA Farms & Gardens Summit. More here.
Monday, April 28 at 6:30 p.m.: The NYC Department of City Planning, NYC Economic Development Corporation, and NYC Department of Small Business Services will host a Zoom webinar and collect feedback about the city’s Industrial Plan. More here.
NYC Affordable Housing Lotteries Ending Soon: The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) is closing lotteries on the following subsidized buildings over the next week.
A duplex was destroyed by a fire Sunday night, according to the Woodbury Fire Department.
Firefighters arrived at the 7500 block of Afton Road close to 11:35 p.m. and observed the house engulfed in flames. The flames were visible from the roof and deck and on the back side of the residence.
All residents evacuated and were uninjured, according to the Woodbury Fire Department.
Crews from Cottage Grove, Oakdale, Lake Elmo, Newport, St Paul Park and Maplewood fire departments aided in extinguishing the fire.
After suppressing the fire, the duplex was deemed a total loss, the Woodbury Fire Department stated.
The cause of the fire is unknown, but officials said they are not ruling out a cigarette as a potential cause.
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VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis changed the Catholic Church’s teaching in areas such as the death penalty and nuclear weapons, upheld it in others such as abortion, and made inroads with Muslims and believers who long felt marginalized.
FILE – Pope Francis, flanked by Monsignor Georg Gaenswein, listens to a faithful’s speech on the occasion of an audience in the Paul VI hall at the Vatican, Friday, March 22, 2019. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, file)
Abortion
Francis upheld church teaching opposing abortion and echoed his predecessors in saying that human life is sacred and must be defended. He described abortion, as well as euthanasia, as evidence of today’s “throwaway culture” and likened abortion to “hiring a hit man to resolve a problem.”
But he didn’t emphasize the church’s position to the extent his predecessors did, and said women who had abortions must be accompanied spiritually by the church. Francis also allowed ordinary priests — not just bishops — to absolve Catholic women who had intentionally terminated a pregnancy.
He didn’t approve of attempts by U.S. bishops to deny Holy Communion to President Joe Biden because of his abortion-rights stance, saying bishops should be pastors, not politicians.
Abuse
Francis’ greatest scandal of his papacy was when he discredited Chilean sexual abuse victims by siding with a bishop whom they accused of complicity in the abuse. After realizing his error, he invited the victims to the Vatican and apologized in person. He then brought the entire Chilean bishops conference to Rome where he pressed them to resign.
In his most significant move, Francis defrocked former U.S. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick after a Vatican investigation determined he abused minors as well as adults. Francis later passed church laws abolishing the use of pontifical secrecy and establishing procedures to investigate bishops who abuse or cover up for predator priests.
But he was dogged by some high-profile cases where he seemed to side with accused priests.
Benedict
In 2013, Pope Benedict XVI resigned in the first such papal retirement in 600 years, and Francis was elected to replace him.
With Benedict living on the Vatican grounds until his 2022 death, Francis said it was like having a “wise grandfather” at home, part of his belief the elderly have a wealth of experience to offer.
There was friction at times, however, including when Benedict co-authored a book strongly backing priestly celibacy at the precise moment Francis was considering an exception to resolve a clergy shortage in the Amazon.
He praised Benedict for humility and courage by setting a precedent for retired popes, although after the German-born pontiff died, Francis said the papacy should be a job for life.
Capitalism
Some conservative U.S. commentators accused Francis of having Marxist sympathies, given his frequent denunciations of economic systems that “idolize” money over people and clear distaste for U.S.-style capitalism.
He called for a universal basic income, dignified wages and working conditions, and said that while globalization had saved many from poverty, “it has condemned many others to die of hunger because it’s a selective economic system.”
“This economy kills,” he said of globalization, defending his positions as those of the Gospel, not communism.
Celibacy
Francis upheld celibacy for Latin Rite priests even after bishops from the Amazon asked him to make an exception to allow married priests to address a shortage of clerics.
Francis had long said the celibacy requirement could change, since it was not a matter of doctrine. But he said the debate was too politicized and that he didn’t want to be the pope to take the step.
China
In 2018, Francis authorized a deal over bishop nominations in China to end a decades-long dispute and regularized the status of a half-dozen Chinese bishops who had been consecrated without papal consent.
FILE – Pope Francis poses a group of faithful and bishops from Shanghai during his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s square at the Vatican Wednesday, May 22, 2019. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, File)
Details of the accord were never released, but his conservative critics bashed it as a sellout to communist China, while the Vatican defended it as the best deal it could get before Beijing closed the door entirely.
Contraception
Francis defended the church’s opposition to artificial contraception, but he also said Catholics need not breed “like rabbits” and should instead practice “responsible parenthood” through approved methods.
The church endorsed the Natural Family Planning method, which involves monitoring a woman’s cycle to avoid intercourse when she is ovulating.
At the same time, Francis suggested in 2016 that women threatened with the Zika virus — which was causing malformations in thousands of children at the time — could use artificial contraception because “avoiding pregnancy is not an absolute evil” in light of epidemics.
COVID-19
Like the rest of humanity, Francis was grounded during COVID-19, prevented from traveling, celebrating Mass in public or presiding over audiences. He repeatedly urged the world to use the pandemic as a wake-up call showing the need to reset priorities and policies in favor of the most vulnerable.
Francis strongly supported vaccination campaigns and demanded the poor have priority. The Vatican’s doctrine office said it was morally acceptable to be vaccinated, even with shots that used cell lines from aborted fetuses in research and production processes, putting Francis at odds with conservatives who refused the shots on moral grounds.
Death penalty
Francis went beyond his predecessors and changed Catholic teaching to state that the death penalty is “inadmissible” in all cases, regardless of the severity of the crime.
Francis also called life in prison without parole a “hidden death penalty” and solitary confinement a “form of torture,” saying both should be abolished.
Divorce
Francis divided the church by issuing an opening to divorced and civilly married Catholics to receive Communion.
Church teaching holds that, without a church-issued annulment declaring the initial marriage invalid, these Catholics are committing adultery and thus cannot receive the sacrament.
Francis first made it easier to get an annulment. Then, he didn’t create a blanket admission to the sacraments to these Catholics without one, but in a footnote to his 2016 encyclical “The Joy of Love,” he suggested bishops and priests could accompany such couples on a case-by-case basis.
Environment
Francis became the first pope to use scientific data in a major teaching document by calling global warming a largely human-caused problem.
In his 2015 encyclical “Praised Be,” Francis denounced a “structurally perverse” world economic system that exploits the poor and risks turning the Earth into an “immense pile of filth.” A 2023 update singled out the U.S. for its emissions and warned the world was “nearing a breaking point.”
He pressed the issue at a 2019 meeting of bishops from the Amazon and in his preaching on the coronavirus pandemic. While Francis pressed the ecological issue harder than his predecessors, many popes before him called for better care for God’s creation.
Indigenous peoples
Francis made sweeping apologies for the “crimes” against Indigenous peoples during the colonial and post-colonial conquest of the Americas.
He apologized in Bolivia in 2015 and again during a “penitential pilgrimage” to Canada in 2022 for the church’s role in the forced assimilation of Indigenous children in church-run residential schools.
The Vatican also formally repudiated the “Doctrine of Discovery,” theories backed by 15th century “papal bulls,” or charters, that legitimized the colonial-era seizure of lands and form the basis of some property laws today, even though it didn’t rescind the bulls themselves.
Francis also held up as a model economic system the Jesuit-run missions in Paraguay that brought Christianity and European-style education and economic organization to the natives in the 17th and 18th centuries.
He canonized the 18th century missionary Junipero Serra during his 2015 trip to the U.S. over objections from some Native American groups who accused Serra of forced conversions, enslaving converts and helping wipe out Indigenous populations through disease.
Islam
Francis made significant progress in the Vatican’s troubled relations with Islam by forging ties with Sunni and Shiite religious leaders and emphasizing a shared commitment to peace, solidarity and dialogue
FILE – Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, right, Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, the pre-eminent institute of Islamic learning in the Sunni Muslim world, right, welcomes Pope Francis at the international peace conference in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, April 28, 2017. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil, file)
He signed a landmark document on the need for greater human fraternity with Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, the grand imam of Al-Azhar, the seat of Sunni learning in Cairo.
He was the first pope to visit both the Arabian Peninsula and Iraq, the birthplace of Abraham, a prophet important to Christians, Muslims and Jews. While in Iraq, he met with the country’s top Shiite cleric and a revered figure in the Shiite world, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
Latin Mass
In one of his most controversial moves, Francis reversed Benedict and reimposed restrictions on celebrating the old Latin Mass. Francis said he had to act because the spread of the so-called Tridentine Rite after Benedict relaxed restrictions in 2007 was becoming a source of division in the church.
This outraged his traditionalist and conservative critics, who called the move an attack on them and the ancient rite. It fueled right-wing opposition to Francis that already was angered at his outreach to gays and divorced Catholics.
LGBTQ+
Francis famously said, “Who am I to judge?” when asked in 2013 about a Vatican monsignor who was purportedly gay.
FILE – Pope Francis walks in procession on the occasion of the Amazon synod, a three-week meeting on preserving the rainforest and ministering to its native people, at the Vatican, Monday, Oct. 7, 2019. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, file)
Francis followed up by assuring gay people that God loves them as they are, that “being homosexual is not a crime,” and that “everyone, everyone, everyone” is welcome in the church.
During his pontificate, the Vatican reversed itself and said transgender people could be baptized, serve as godparents and witnesses at weddings; and approved same-sex blessings. But while he met several times with members of the LGBTQ+ community, Francis didn’t change church teaching stating that homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered.”
As archbishop of Buenos Aires, he opposed efforts to legalize same-sex marriage and proposed, unsuccessfully, that the country approve civil unions instead.
He articulated support for those Argentine civil union protections in a 2019 interview with Mexican broadcaster Televisa, making him the first pope to come out in favor of them.
Migration
Francis denounced the “globalization of indifference” shown to migrants and urged Europe and other countries to open their doors to those seeking better lives.
His first trip outside Rome as pontiff in July 2013 was to the Italian island of Lampedusa, a key site in Europe’s migration crisis.
In 2016, he brought a dozen Syrian refugees to Rome with him from a camp in Greece and repeated the gesture in 2021 while visiting Cyprus and Greece. “We cannot allow the Mediterranean to become a vast cemetery!” he told European lawmakers.
He also decried “inhuman” conditions facing migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. In 2016, Francis said of then-candidate Donald Trump that anyone building a wall to keep migrants out “is not a Christian.”
Nuclear weapons
Francis went further than his predecessors — and church teaching — by saying that not only the use, but the mere possession of nuclear weapons was “immoral.”
The church previously held that nuclear deterrence could be morally acceptable in the interim as long as it went toward mutual, verifiable disarmament.
Vatican reform
Francis was elected on a mandate for bureaucratic reform after centuries of waste, mismanagement and market crises put the Vatican’s financial health at risk.
FILE – In this Feb. 19, 2014 file photo, Pope Francis greets U.S. cardinal Theodore Edgar McCarrick at the end of his general audience, in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, file)
He imposed regulations to bring order, transparency and modern accounting to the books, requiring competitive bidding procedures, caps on gifts, salary cuts for cardinals and the centralization of assets and investments in one office with a unified, ethical and green investment policy.
He created a Secretariat for the Economy to supervise the Holy See’s finances, staffed mostly with lay experts, and he authorized a sweeping criminal trial into the Vatican’s botched investment in a London real estate deal that resulted in losses of tens of millions of euros.
Women
Francis consistently called for a greater role for women in governing the church and made significant appointments and changes to church law to prove his point.
He named an Italian nun as prefect of the Vatican office for religious orders and another Italian nun as head of the Vatican City State administration, two jobs previously held only by cardinals. He also named a French nun as an undersecretary in the Vatican Synod of Bishops’ office, giving her a vote in the previously all-male process and opened up the synod itself to voting women members.
He named three women to the Vatican office that vets bishop appointments, a first. He appointed women to half the seats on the Vatican’s economic council, appointed two study commissions into whether women could be ordained deacons, put Mary Magdalene on par with the male apostles by declaring a feast day for her, and formally allowed women to serve as lectors and acolytes, services previously open to them on an ad hoc basis.
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Key events in the life of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who became Pope Francis and died on Monday:
Dec. 17, 1936: Jorge Mario Bergoglio is born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the eldest of five children to Mario Jose Bergoglio, an accountant from Italy, and Regina María Sívori, the daughter of Italian immigrants.
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What to know about the death of Pope Francis
Dec. 13, 1969: Ordained a priest with the Jesuit religious order, which he would lead as Argentina provincial superior during the country’s murderous dictatorship that began in the 1970s.
May 20, 1992: Named auxiliary bishop of Buenos Aires and in 1998 succeeds Cardinal Antonio Quarracino as archbishop of the Argentine capital.
Feb. 21, 2001: Elevated to cardinal by St. John Paul II.
May 2007: Helps draft the final document of the fifth meeting of the Latin American bishops conference in Aparecida, Brazil, synthesizing what would eventually become his concerns as pope for the poor, Indigenous peoples and the environment and the need for a missionary church.
March 13, 2013: Elected 266th pope, the first from the Americas, the first Jesuit and the first to take the name of Francis, after St. Francis of Assisi.
April 13, 2013: Creates a kitchen cabinet of eight cardinals from around the globe to help him govern the church and reorganize its bureaucracy.
May 12, 2013: Canonizes the “Martyrs of Otranto,” 813 Italians slain in 1480 for defying demands by Turkish invaders to convert to Islam. With one ceremony, Francis nearly doubled the 480 saints made by St. John Paul II over his quarter-century pontificate, which at the time was more than all his predecessors combined for 500 years.
July 8, 2013: Makes first trip outside Rome to the Sicilian island of Lampedusa to meet with newly arrived migrants and denounces the “globalization of indifference” shown to would-be refugees.
July 30, 2013: Declares “Who am I to judge?” when asked about a gay priest during a news conference, signaling a more welcoming stance toward LGBTQ+ community.
FILE – Argentine Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, who chose the name of Pope Francis, looks out to the crowd from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica after being elected 266th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church, at the Vatican, Wednesday, March 13, 2013. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno, file)
FILE – This undated handout reproduction of a photo made available by Maria Elena Bergoglio, shows the Bergoglio family as they pose for a portrait, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Top row, from left; Maria Elena, Regina Sivori, Alberto, Jorge Mario, Oscar, Marta and her husband Enrique Navaja. Bottom row, from right; Mario, Maria de Bergoglio and Juan. Mario and Regina were the parents of Jorge Mario, Maria Elena, Oscar, Marta and Alberto. Juan and Maria were Mario Bergoglio’s parents, Jorge Mario’s paternal grandparents. (Bergoglio family photo via AP, File)
FILE – This undated file photo made available by Maria Helena Bergoglio shows Jorge Mario Bergoglio as a teenager in Buenos Aires, Argentina. (Bergoglio family photo via AP, File)
FILE – Pope Francis talks about gays saying he wouldn’t judge priests for their sexual orientation in a remarkably open and wide-ranging news conference aboard the papal flight on the journey back from Brazil, on July 29, 2013. (AP Photo/Luca Zennaro, Pool, file)
FILE – Pope Francis celebrates a Mass in front of an altar made with recycled wood from a broken migrant boat, during his visit to the island of Lampedusa, southern Italy, Monday, July 8, 2013. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, file)
FILE – Pope Francis is flanked by Israel’s President Shimon Peres, right, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas during an evening of peace prayers in the Vatican, Sunday, June 8, 2014. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, file)
FILE – Pope Francis prays at Israel’s separation barrier on his way to a Mass in Manger Square next to the Church of the Nativity, traditionally believed to be the birthplace of Jesus Christ, in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Sunday, May 25, 2014. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit, file)
FILE – Pope Francis addresses a joint meeting of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2015. Listening behind the pope are then Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, file)
FILE – Pope Francis opens the holy door of the Bangui cathedral, Central African Republic, Sunday, Nov. 29, 2015. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, file)
FILE – Pope Francis walks amid the crowd while leaving the second World Meeting of Popular Movements in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, Thursday, July 9, 2015. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd, file)
FILE – Pope Francis, right, and Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill talk during their meeting at the Jose Marti International airport in Havana, Cuba, Friday, Feb. 12, 2016. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, file)
FILE – Pope Francis prays near the U.S.-Mexico border fence along the Rio Grande, in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2016. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, file)
FILE – Pope Francis greets a group of Syrian refugees, arrived with the pontiff’s charter plane after the pope’s visit to the Greek island of Lesbos, at Rome Ciampino airport, Saturday, April 16, 2016. (Filippo Monteforte/Pool Photo via AP, file)
FILE – Pope Francis connects to the crew aboard the International Space Station from the Vatican, Thursday, Oct. 26, 2017. (L’Osservatore Romano/Pool Photo via AP, File)
FILE – Pope Francis meets Rohingya Muslims refugees from Myanmar during an interfaith and ecumenical meeting for peace in the garden of the archbishop’s residence, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Friday, Dec. 1, 2017. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, file)
FILE – Pope Francis is presented with an image of Roman Catholic Archbishop Oscar Romero during a private audience granted to participants to the pilgrimage from El Salvador at the Vatican, Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2015. (L’Osservatore Romano/Pool Photo via AP, file)
FILE – Pope Francis greets Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, the grand imam of Egypt’s Al-Azhar, after an Interreligious meeting at the Founder’s Memorial in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2015. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, file)
FILE – Pope Francis delivers his speech at the Atomic Bomb Hypocenter Park, in Nagasaki, Japan, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2019. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, file)
FILE – Pope Francis, surrounded by shells of destroyed churches, leads a prayer for the victims of war at Hosh al-Bieaa Church Square, in Mosul, Iraq, once the de-facto capital of IS, Sunday, March 7, 2021. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, file)
FILE – Pope Francis arrives in a wheelchair to attend an audience with nuns and religious superiors in the Paul VI Hall at The Vatican with his aide Monsignor Leonardo Sapienza, right, Thursday, May 5, 2022. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, File)
FILE – Pope Francis arrives for a pilgrimage on a second day of a “penitential” six-day visit to Canada to beg forgiveness from survivors of the country’s residential schools, at the Lac Saint Anne, Canada, Tuesday, July 26, 2022. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, File)
FILE – Pope Francis sits during a meeting with Indigenous peoples and members of the parish community of Sacred Heart in Edmonton, Canada, Monday, July 25, 2022. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, File)
FILE – Pope Francis dons a headdress that was gifted to him during a visit with Indigenous peoples at Maskwaci, the former Ermineskin Residential School, Monday, July 25, 2022, in Maskwacis, Alberta. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
FILE – Pope Francis, second from left, looks at traditional dancers performing at the Martyrs’ Stadium In Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Thursday, Feb. 2, 2023. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, File)
FILE – Pope Francis helped to get on his car at the end of weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square, at the Vatican, Wednesday, March 29, 2023. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, File)
FILE – Pope Francis celebrates the Palm Sunday’s Mass in St. Peter’s Square at The Vatican Sunday, April 2, 2023 a day after being discharged from the Agostino Gemelli University Hospital in Rome, where he has been treated for bronchitis. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, File)
FILE – Pope Francis looks at traditional dancers as he arrives at the Centro de Convenções for a meeting with youths, in Díli, East Timor, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, file)
FILE – Pope Francis leaves the Agostino Gemelli University Polyclinic in Rome, Friday, June 16, 2023, nine days after undergoing abdominal surgery. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, file)
FILE – The Grand Imam Nasaruddin Umar, left, bids farewell to Pope Francis, as he leaves after signing the “Joint Declaration of Istiqlal 2024” at the Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, File)
FILE – Pope Francis is seated before leading a holy mass at Tasitolu park in Dili, East Timor, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati, file)
FILE – Pope Francis leaves the Rebibbia Prison where he symbolically opened a Holy Door with inmates in Rome, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, file)
FILE – Pope Francis waves as he arrives for his weekly general audience in the Paul VI Hall, at the Vatican, Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, file)
FILE – Pope Francis arrives in a wheelchair at the end of a mass in St. Peter’s Square at The Vatican, Sunday, April 6, 2025, part of the Jubilee of the sick and the health workers. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, File)
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FILE – Argentine Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, who chose the name of Pope Francis, looks out to the crowd from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica after being elected 266th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church, at the Vatican, Wednesday, March 13, 2013. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno, file)
Nov. 26, 2013: Issues mission statement for his papacy in Evangelii Gaudium, (“The Joy of the Gospel”), denouncing the world financial system that excludes the poor and declaring the Eucharist is “not a prize for the perfect but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak.”
May 25, 2014: Makes an unscheduled stop to pray at wall separating Israel from West Bank town of Bethlehem, in a show of support for the Palestinian cause.
June 8, 2014: Hosts Israeli and Palestinian presidents for peace prayers in the Vatican gardens.
March 20, 2015: Accepts the resignation of the “rights and privileges” of Scottish Cardinal Keith O’Brien after adult men accuse him of sexual misconduct.
June 18, 2015: Issues his environmental manifesto “Laudato Si” (“Praised Be”), calling for a cultural revolution to correct the “structurally perverse” global economic system that exploits the poor and has turned Earth into “an immense pile of filth.”
July 10, 2015: Apologizes in Bolivia for the sins and crimes of the Catholic Church against Indigenous peoples during the colonial-era conquest of the Americas.
Sept. 8, 2015: Overhauls the annulment process to make it faster, cheaper and simpler so divorced Catholics can remarry in the church.
Sept. 24, 2015: Challenges Congress to rediscover America’s ideals by acting on climate change, immigration and poverty reduction in the first speech by a pope at the U.S. Capitol.
Nov. 29, 2015: Inaugurates the Jubilee of Mercy by opening the Holy Door of the cathedral in Bangui, Central African Republic, rather than at the Vatican.
Feb. 12, 2016: Meets Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill during a stopover in Havana and declares “We are brothers,” in first such meeting between a pope and patriarch in over 1,000 years.
Ivanka Trump, first lady Melania Trump, and President Donald Trump stand with Pope Francis during a meeting, Wednesday, May 24, 2017, at the Vatican. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
Feb. 18, 2016: Prays for dead migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, later says then-presidential candidate Donald Trump is “not a Christian” for wanting to build a border wall.
April 8, 2016: Opens the way to letting divorced and civilly remarried Catholics receive Communion in a footnote to the document “Amoris Laetitia” (“The Joy of Love”).
April 16, 2016: Visits a refugee camp in Lesbos, Greece, and brings 12 Syrian Muslims to Rome aboard his papal plane in an appeal for solidarity toward migrants.
Sept. 19, 2016: Is questioned in a letter by four conservative cardinals seeking clarification of his opening to divorced and remarried Catholics.
Dec. 1, 2017: Declares at a meeting in Bangladesh with Myanmar Rohingya refugees that, “The presence of God today is also called Rohingya.”
Jan. 19, 2018: Accuses sex abuse victims of slander during a visit to Chile, further undermining Catholic Church’s credibility. Subsequently orders a Vatican investigation into Chile’s abuse crisis.
April 12, 2018: Admits to “grave errors” in judgment in Chile’s sex abuse scandal. Later summons Chilean bishops to Rome to secure their resignations and invites abuse victims to Vatican to apologize.
Aug. 3, 2018: Declares capital punishment “inadmissible” under all circumstances in a change to official church teaching.
July 28, 2018: Accepts the resignation of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick from the College of Cardinals, orders him to penance and prayer pending an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct with minors and adults.
Aug. 26, 2018: Retired Vatican ambassador Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano publishes bombshell accusation claiming U.S. and Vatican officials for two decades covered up McCarrick’s sexual misconduct, demands Francis resign.
Sept. 22, 2018: Vatican and China sign landmark agreement over bishop nominations.
Oct. 14, 2018: Canonizes slain Salvadoran Archbishop Óscar Romero after his saint-making process was held up for decades by conservative cardinals.
Feb. 4, 2019: Signs the “Human Fraternity” document with the imam of Al Azhar, establishing collaborative relations between Catholics and Muslims.
Feb. 16, 2019: Defrocks McCarrick after Vatican investigation finds he sexually abused minors and adults.
May 9, 2019: Issues new church law requiring clergy sex abuse to be reported in-house, although not to police; establishes procedures for investigating accused bishops, cardinals and religious superiors.
Oct. 25, 2019: Apologizes to Amazonian bishops, tribal leaders after conservative activists steal Indigenous statues from Vatican-area church and throw them into Tiber River in show of opposition to the pope.
Nov. 24, 2019: Declares the use and possession of nuclear weapons “immoral” during a visit to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.
Dec. 17, 2019: Abolishes use of “pontifical secret” in clergy sex abuse cases, allowing bishops to share internal documentation about abusers with law enforcement.
Feb. 12, 2020: Declines to approve ordination of married men as priests after appeals from Amazonian bishops, sidestepping issue in document “Querida Amazonia” (“Beloved Amazon”).
March 27, 2020: Delivers solitary evening prayer to the world facing the coronavirus pandemic from the promenade of St. Peter’s Square.
Oct. 4, 2020: Issues encyclical “Fratelli Tutti” (“Brothers All,”), arguing the pandemic proves theories of market capitalism failed and a new type of politics is needed to promote human fraternity.
Nov. 10, 2020: Vatican report into McCarrick finds Vatican, U.S. bishops, cardinals and popes played down or dismissed reports of sexual misconduct but spares Francis.
March 5-8, 2021: Becomes first pope to visit Iraq, meeting with its top Shiite Muslim cleric.
July 4, 2021: Undergoes intestinal surgery at Rome’s Gemelli hospital, has 33 centimeters (13 inches) of colon removed.
March 29, 2023: Is admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital for respiratory infection; is released April 1.
June 7, 2023: Undergoes surgery to remove intestinal scar tissue and repair a hernia in the abdominal wall.
Oct. 4, 2023: Opens a synod on making the church more responsive to ordinary faithful during which women are allowed to vote alongside bishops for the first time.
Nov. 28, 2023: Cancels visit to Dubai to address U.N. climate conference and outline a new ecological manifesto “Laudate Deum” (“Praise God”) because of a new case of acute bronchitis.
Dec. 16, 2023: Vatican tribunal convicts Cardinal Angelo Becciu of embezzlement and sentences him to 5½ years in prison in one of several verdicts in a complicated financial trial that aired the city state’s dirty laundry and tested its justice system.
Dec. 19, 2023: Approves blessings for same-sex couples provided they don’t resemble marriage, sparking fierce opposition from conservative bishops in Africa, Asia and elsewhere.
Sept. 10, 2024: Some 600,000 people, half of East Timor’s population, attend Francis’ Mass in Dili in what is believed to be the biggest turnout for a papal event in terms of the proportion of the population.
FILE – Pope Francis is seated before leading a holy mass at Tasitolu park in Dili, East Timor, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati, file)
Dec. 26, 2024: Opens the holy door of Rome’s Rebibbia prison, two days after formally inaugurating the 2025 Jubilee.
Jan. 16, 2025: Appears wearing a sling after a fall that bruised his right arm, just weeks after another apparent fall bruised his chin.
Feb. 14, 2025: Is hospitalized after a bout of bronchitis worsens and then develops into a complex lung infection and double pneumonia.
Feb. 28, 2025: His doctors briefly consider suspending treatment after a breathing crisis but decide instead on an aggressive course that risks organ damage.
March 13, 2025: Marks the 12th anniversary of his election as pope while hospitalized.
April 17, 2025: Keeps his Holy Thursday tradition of spending time with the least fortunate, visiting inmates at Rome’s Regina Caeli prison. Although he says he can’t perform the ritual of washing the feet of 12 people in a gesture of humility, he says he wanted to be with them and “do what Jesus did on Holy Thursday.”
April 20, 2025: Says “Brothers and Sisters, Happy Easter!” and imparts the Easter Urbi et Orbi blessing from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica, then surprises the 35,000 people in the piazza below with a long ride in the popemobile, around the square and up and down Via della Conciliazione, in what would become his final goodbye to the faithful.
April 21, 2025: Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the camerlengo, announces from the chapel of the Domus Santa Marta hotel where Francis lived that the pope died at 7:35 a.m.
