04/23/2025
Together with Catholics across the world, we mourn the loss of Pope Francis. As the first Pope from the Americas or the Southern Hemisphere, Pope Francis embraced and celebrated the global church and used the papacy to speak out for the world’s most marginalized communities. His travels reflected his commitment to addressing contemporary challenges – many of his international trips were to countries where Christians are a minority or where the most important issues are on the fringes of the world’s attention. Here is just a small selection of the 65+ countries Pope Francis visited:
Image 1: In 2016, nearly 200 dance groups participated in a 10-day feast for the Virgen del Carmen in La Tirana, Chile. Pope Francis visited the country in 2018.
Image 2: Catholics praying before Our Lady of Madhu in Sri Lanka, which Pope Francis visited in 2015.
Image 3: Millions attend the annual “translation” of the statue of the Black Nazarene in Manila each year. Pope Francis’s visit to Manila in 2015 became the largest papal event in history, with around 6-7 million attendees.
Image 4: A 2014 wedding in Kampala, Uganda, which Pope Francis visited in 2015.
Image 5: Saint Elijah’s Monastery (Dair Mar Elia), south of Mosul, Iraq, was cared for by the Chaldean Church for centuries. In 2021, Pope Francis became the first ever Pope to visit Iraq.
Image 6: An outdoor stall sells religious goods after weekday mass in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Pope Francis visited the city in 2023.
You can learn more about Catholic practices and traditions in all of these countries at the link in our bio.
