Pope Francis, who died Monday aged 88, will go down in history as a radical pontiff, a champion of underdogs who forged a more compassionate Catholic Church while stopping short of overhauling centuries-old dogma.

Dubbed "the people's Pope", the Argentine pontiff loved being among his flock and was popular with the faithful, though he faced bitter opposition from traditionalists within the Church.

The first pope from the Americas and the southern hemisphere, he staunchly defended the most disadvantaged, from migrants to communities battered by climate change, which he warned was a crisis caused by humankind.

But while he confronted head-on the global scandal of sex abuse by priests, survivors' groups said concrete measures were slow in coming.

From his election in March 2013, Jorge Mario Bergoglio was eager to make his mark as the leader of the Catholic Church.

He became the first pope to take the name Francis after Saint Francis of Assisi, a 13th-century mystic who renounced his wealth and devoted his life to the poor.

"How I would like a poor church for the poor," he said three days after his election as the 266th pope.

He was a humble figurehead who wore plain robes, eschewed the sumptuous papal palaces and made his own phone calls, some of them to widows, rape victims or prisoners.

The football-loving former archbishop of Buenos Aires was also more accessible than his predecessors, chatting with young people about issues ranging from social media to pornography -- and talking openly about his health.

Francis always left the door open to retiring like his predecessor Benedict XVI, who in 2013 became the first pontiff since the Middle Ages to step down.

After Benedict died in December 2022, Francis became the first sitting pope in modern history to lead a papal funeral.

He suffered increasingly poor health, from colon surgery in 2021 and a hernia in June 2023 to bouts of bronchitis and knee pain that forced him to use a wheelchair.

His fourth hospitalisation, of more than a month for bronchitis in both lungs, was........

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