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Heralded as the “People’s Pope”, Pope Francis became popular beyond the vast Catholic community he led for championing the disadvantaged and dispossessed throughout his 12-year papacy.

The late pontiff was known for advocating for society’s most vulnerable and taking bold stances on issues such as climate change, corporate greed and the Israel-Hamas war.

His reign as head of the Catholic Church was defined by a desire to bring the church closer to the people, stress priests as servants and construct “a poor church for the poor”.

It was a mission he outlined just days after his election in 2013 and attempted to integrate, even at his funeral, simplifying and streamlining the Vatican’s traditional rites and rituals during his mandate.

Euronews brings you some of the symbolic moments from the pontificate that reflect his humility, informality, and mission to reform the papacy.

1. Courted controversy by washing female inmates’ feet

In 2013, Pope Francis broke with tradition by washing the feet of 12 inmates at the Casal del Marmo youth detention centre on the outskirts of Rome.

The traditional rite represents Jesus’ final act of humility towards his disciples. But it was the pontiff’s decision to include two young women, as well as Muslims, in the ritual that sparked the ire of traditionalists in the Roman Catholic Church.

At the time, the Vatican’s spokesman Federico Lombardi said the decision took place in a situation “in which excluding the girls would have been inopportune in light of the simple aim of communicating a message of love to all.”

2. Kissed the feet of South Sudanese leaders

In 2019, Pope Francis kissed the feet of South Sudanese leaders during a historical spiritual retreat at the Vatican — an unprecedented gesture aimed at urging the leaders to uphold peace amidst the country’s raging civil war.

“I was almost trembling because that thing has not happened before, except at the time when Jesus knelt down to wash the feet of his disciples,” South Sudanese President Salva Kirr told CNA in an interview after the moment.

In a tribute after the pontiff’s death, Kirr said the moment was a “turning point for us, the peace partners”.

Pope Francis visited South Sudan in 2023, where he advocated for the implementation of the 2018 peace agreement and called for the laying down of weapons as well as for leaders to take accountability for corruption.

3. Gave away a custom-made Lamborghini

In 2017, Italian carmaker Lamborghini gifted Pope Francis its Huracán RWD high-end sports car in the white and yellow-gold colours of the Vatican flag.

Pope Francis blessed the car and, rather than keeping the vehicle, signed it and asked that it be auctioned off. The car sold for approximately €809,375.

The donations were distributed to the Pontifical Foundation “Aid to the Church in Need” (Aiuto alla Chiesa che Soffre) towards the rebuilding of the Nineveh Plain in Iraq, the Pope John XXIII Community, and the “Pope Francis House Project” (Progetto Casa Papa Francesco).

Throughout his pontificate, Pope Francis opted for humble cars, often eschewing the Popemobile — which he called a “sardine-can” — and its bulletproof glass.

He instead selected an open-air version of the vehicle, infamously saying in 2015: “It’s true that anything could happen, but let’s face it, at my age I don’t have much to lose.”

4. Appointed the first woman to lead a major Vatican office

In January, Pope Francis announced Sister Simona Brambilla would serve as prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, a Vatican office that oversees religious orders for both men and women.

The unprecedented step reflected the pontiff’s aim to give women greater leadership roles in the Catholic Church.

In 2021, he also allowed women to serve as lectors and acolytes, roles that had been exclusively reserved for men. Pope Francis, however, stopped short of allowing women to be ordained as priests — a highly controversial topic in the Church.

5. Brought 12 refugees on his plane to Rome

On a spring day in 2016, Pope Francis visited the Greek island of Lesbos, one of the epicentres of Europe’s refugee crisis at the time.

The pontiff spent around five hours on the island and, as he left, he took with him two families of Syrian refugees from Damascus and Deir ez-Zor.

“The Vatican will take responsibility for bringing in and maintaining (them),” a statement from the Holy See press office read.

Rescuing the 12 refugees from the island’s cramped centre was a “a drop of water in the sea. But after this drop, the sea will never be the same,” Pope Francis said.

The symbolic act was considered a rebuke to the European Union, which had implemented a policy of sending migrants and refugees back to Turkey.

The gesture was part of his broader effort during his papacy to highlight the plight of refugees and asylum seekers.

In July 2013, his first papal trip outside the Vatican was to the remote Italian island of Lampedusa, in the wake of several migrants dying in the fatal crossing between the African coast and Malta.

“He wanted to begin a global dialogue to let world leaders know that even an undocumented migrant is not something to fear,” one of the people Pope Francis brought from Lesbos, Hasan Zaheda, said during the late pontiff’s recent hospitalisation earlier this year.