Pope Francis

About Pope Francis

Pope Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in 1936 and passing away in 2025, was the 266th Pope and head of the Catholic Church. His historical importance, stemming from his 2013 election, is recognized by the Pantheon project with an HPI Rank of #8. His tenure was marked by a focus on social justice, environmentalism, and outreach to other faiths, significantly shaping modern Catholic engagement and global religious dialogue.

Despite this high historical standing, Pope Francis's modern internet attention is notably fragmented. He garnered 16.7 million Wikipedia views in 2025, which, while substantial, represents a +13x overattention relative to his historical ranking when compared to figures like Gautama Buddha (#2 importance, 410K views) or Muhammad (#1 importance, 4.4M views). This suggests his recent passing kept his immediate digital profile highly visible compared to foundational religious figures.

The data also shows a dramatic shift in this recent attention: the Year-over-Year Change was a massive +355.1%, indicating a surge likely tied to his death in 2025, yet the Q1 versus Q3 Momentum dropped sharply by -82%, underscoring the ephemeral nature of high-volume search traffic following a major life event.