Here is a selection of what Europe's press wrote.
- Britain -
The Guardian called Francis a "groundbreaking head of Catholic Church" who urged his fellow clergy leaders to show "humility".
"It would be a mistake... to view Francis's papacy as a liberal one, but in significant areas it exerted a major progressive influence beyond the church, especially in relation to the climate emergency and the treatment of people migrating between countries."
For The Times, Francis was "a born fighter resented by old guard but loved by the masses," with international trips that "reinforced the image of his papacy as a breath of fresh air".
The Daily Telegraph tabloid called him "courageous, sincere, egalitarian," adding that his "humour and insight had sublime effect."
- Spain -
El Pais lamented "The end of a social and reformist papacy" while El Mundo, another national daily, hailed "The pope who shook up the Church and wanted to give voice to the excluded".
- Germany -
"Jorge Mario Bergoglio was an unusual pontiff, one who liked people. And people liked him," news magazine Der Speigel wrote, using Francis's birth name.
"But was that enough to save his hard-hit church? In Germany and other Western societies, countless believers were hoping for real reforms from their pope," it added, such as allowing women to be ordained priests.
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung agreed, saying that "compared to his predecessors, Francis almost seemed like a revolutionary. From the perspective of many Catholics in this country, however, he has changed too little."
- Poland -
In Poland, Rzeczpospolita lamented the pope's death as "one more factor that increases the instability in our world," citing in particular the war in Ukraine and Donald Trump's re-election as US president.
The Gazeta Wyborcza noted that, with his varied statements on Moscow's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, "he alienated himself from both Ukrainians and Russians, and the Vatican has no influence at all on how this conflict will end".
- Portugal -
Publico titled its front page with "Francis, the favourite pope of the people and of atheists," saying his 2013 election generated "a tsunami of unprecedented enthusiasm... in both the Catholic and non-Catholic worlds".
For the Jornal de Noticias, the pope was "the seed of revolution" for the Church and the "mentor of a spiritual transformation".
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