Tributes to Pope Francis pour in from around the world with Vatican set to published details of funeral and conclave

Guillermo Marco, spokesman for the pope when he was Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio in Buenos Aires, told Reuters it had been a "wasted opportunity" for Argentina. Francis, he said, had

Canon Batthula said that upon meeting the Pope in 2017, he was struck by his holiness - but also "his simplicity and humility". "Normally, when we see the hierarchy, we [put people on] a pedestal, rather than them being one with the common people," explained Canon Batthula.

He was a pope who understood the power of a simple touch: caressing the deformed head of a man in St. Peter’s Square, washing the feet of a Muslim prisoner, sinking to his hands and knees to implore South Sudan’s rival leaders to make peace.

Francis inherited a deeply divided Church after the resignation in 2013 of his predecessor, Benedict XVI. The conservative-progressive gap became a chasm after Francis, from Argentina, was elected the first non-European pope in 1,