Pope Francis succumbs to illness

The leader of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis, passed away this past Monday after battling health issues that led to him having a stroke and heart failure.

Pope Francis was born Jorge Mario Bergoglio on Dec. 17, 1936 and was elected the 266th pope on March 13, 2013.

He was the first pope elected from the Americas (Buenos Aires, Argentina) and took the name Francis after Francis of Assisi.

Pope Francis was ordained a Catholic priest in 1969 and was the first pope selected from the Jesuit Order. He became the archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998 and was created a cardinal in 2001 by Pope John Paul II.

Following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI on Feb. 28, 2013, a papal conclave elected him as the successor.

Pope Francis’ funeral will take place in front of the basilica in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican on Saturday, April 26 at 10 a.m. Rome time.

It will be televised live on the NBC News Network and will be shown in the Texas area at 2 a.m. on Saturday morning.

The replacement for Pope Francis will be chosen through a process called the papal conclave.

The College of Cardinals, the Church’s most senior officials, will elect the new Pope.

This involves a series of secret ballot votes held in the Sistine Chapel, where cardinals are sequestered away from the outside world until a new Pope is elected. A two-thirds majority vote is required to elect the new Pope.

During the election process, the conclave follows a tradition of indicating by smoke flowing from the Sistine Chapel chimney of whether or not one has been chosen.

If black smoke is released, that means a candidate has not received the necessary two-thirds majority vote.

But, when white smoke is released it signals to the world of the news a new pope has been selected to head the Catholic Church.