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Pope Francis (Jorge Mario Bergoglio) (Latin: Franciscus, Italian: Francesco, Spanish: Franciscocode: es is deprecated ; born on 17 December 1936) is the 266th and current pope of the Roman Catholic Church. He was elected on 13 March 2013. He chose the name Francis to honor St. Francis of Assisi.

Francis is the first Jesuit pope. He is also the first pope in more than a millennium who is not European. He is the first pope ever to come from the Americas, and the first from the Southern Hemisphere.

From 1998 until he was elected as the pope, Francis was the Archbishop of Buenos Aires. Throughout his life, both as an individual and a religious leader, he has been known for his humility, his concern for the poor, and his commitment to dialogue as a way to build bridges between people of all backgrounds, beliefs, and faiths. He has expressed concern about the effects of global warming (climate change). In his 2015 encyclical Laudato si' , he wrote about these issues, and others.