Pope Francis

About Pope Francis

Pope Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, holds the #8 rank in MIT's Pantheon historical importance index, signifying his profound global cultural impact as the first Jesuit, the first from the Americas, and the first from the Southern Hemisphere to serve as Bishop of Rome. His tenure, beginning in 2013 and concluding with his death in 2025, was marked by significant pastoral outreach, advocacy on climate change, and efforts toward dialogue with other faiths, cementing his position as one of the most influential religious figures of the 21st century.

Despite this high historical ranking, Pope Francis garners immense, though perhaps explainable, modern internet attention, with 18.0 million annualized Wikipedia views in 2025. This figure places him in the "overattention" category, exhibiting an Attention Gap of +14x relative to his historical importance ranking. Interestingly, his contemporary digital presence vastly overshadows figures ranked significantly higher in historical consequence; for instance, Genghis Khan (#5 importance) received only 4.0 million views, and Isaac Newton (#3 importance) garnered a mere 3.7 million views in the same period.

His passing in 2025 is clearly reflected in the data, as evidenced by an extraordinary Year-over-Year Change of +390.3% in pageviews. However, the 2025 Momentum data, showing an -84% drop from Q1 to Q3, suggests that the immediate surge in interest following his death has significantly tapered off as the year progressed.