COMMENT | As bells toll over St Peter’s Square, the world bids farewell to Pope Francis, a man who redefined the papacy not through power, but through presence.

Known as the “People’s Pope”, Francis leaves behind a Catholic Church that may remain divided over his reforms, but largely united in recognising the rare humanity that marked his pontificate.

Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1936, Francis was the first pope from the Americas, the first Jesuit to hold the office, and the first non-European pope in over a millennium.

But it was not these firsts that defined him - it was his lastingly simple approach to a deeply complex role.