Vatican – Middle East Monitor

Pope Francis died at age 88 after suffering a prolonged illness, the Vatican announced on Monday.

He suffered a “prolonged asthma-like respiratory crisis” associated with thrombocytopenia, according to a previous Vatican statement.

Francis was born in Buenos Aires on 17 December 1936, to Italian immigrant parents.

He studied in Argentina and later in Germany before being ordained as a Jesuit priest in 1969.

Over a decade into his papacy, Pope Francis…