The pope's death comes one day after Francis, 88, greeted Easter Sunday crowds in his popemobile. He had battled a respiratory infection for weeks.

Pope Francis, a reformer who rattled the Catholic Church's conservatives and inspired some progressives, has died.

Pope Francis died Monday morning in the Vatican City, less than a day after greeting a huge Easter Sunday gathering of Catholics in St. Peter's Square and issuing a plea for world peace. He was 88.