
Pope Francis is marking the 10th anniversary of his election as pope on Monday. Over the past decade, various events have helped shape his papacy and influence the direction of the Catholic Church. Some of these events include visits with refugees in Italy and Greece, trips to Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, and the COVID-19 pandemic and the death of his predecessor. Notable moments that have defined his papacy include denouncing the treatment of migrants in Lampedusa in 2013, his more conciliatory tone towards LGBTQ Catholics in the same year, and meeting with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church in 2016. In 2019, he signed a document pledging Christian-Muslim cooperation and in the same year, faced conservative opposition due to his crackdown on the use of the old Latin Mass. Francis has also modified the Catholic Church’s position on the use of nuclear weapons and in 2020, prayed for an end to the COVID-19 pandemic from a hauntingly empty St. Peter’s Square. In 2022, the Pope apologized to Indigenous peoples in Canada for the forcible assimilation of Native peoples into Christian society. In January 2023, Francis presided over the funeral of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who retired in 2013, paving the way for Francis’ election.