Pope Francis: From chemical technician to teaching and priesthood

Over the last two weeks, Pope Francis has made the news over his sickness.

While the actual diagnosis is not public, the leader of the Catholic Church has been hospitalised for the last two weeks.

He is undergoing treatment at Rome's Gemelli hospital.

He was first admitted on February 14, 2025.

Regular updates from the hospital indicate that the Pope is stable and his condition improving, even though he is still having oxygen therapy.

Initial reports said that he had respiratory and kidney problems, which Vatican said was not a cause for concern.

Other than being head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis is also the sovereign of the Vatican City State.

In 2023, the Pope was treated for Bronchitis.

He has been admitted to hospital multiple times during his 12-year tenure.

Pope Francis was born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on December 17, 1936.

In the early stages of his life, especially after high school, he became a chemical technician and worked in the food processing industry.

He would then leave to follow his calling into Priesthood.

Pope Francis then joined the Jesuit novitiate in 1958, where he focused on academics, specializing in humanities and after graduating, he became a high school literature and psychology teacher. He taught while studying theology and in 1969, he was ordained into priesthood.

In 1973, he took his final vows on the Jesuit order and also served as head of the Jesuit province of Argentina up to 1979.

In the 80s, he worked as a seminary teacher and rector.

In 1992, he was appointed auxiliary bishop of Buenos Aires and later on archbishop in 1998. He was consecrated Cardinal in 2001 as he remained archbishop of Buenos Aires.

In February 2013, after the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI over old age and health concerns, Pope Francis was elected and assumed the name, becoming the first to use Francis. He, however, refused to have the Roman number I included.

He is the first pope from the Society of Jesus, the first from the Americas and the Southern Hemisphere, and the first born or raised outside Europe since the 8th-century Syrian pope Gregory III.