Vatican official: Pope Francis has died aged 88

Pope Francis has died aged 88, the Vatican has announced.

A senior Vatican official said he had “returned to the home of the Father”. He died at his residence in the Vatican's Casa Santa Marta, a day after greeting worshippers in St Peter’s Square on Easter Sunday.

First Minister John Swinney described the pontiff as “a voice for peace, tolerance and reconciliation”.

The Pope had suffered medical problems in recent months and had spent time in hospital with respiratory difficulties. However, he was discharged and had been able to return to the Vatican.

Camerlengo Cardinal Kevin Farrell said on Monday: “At 7.35 this morning, the Bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the home of the Father.

“His entire life was dedicated to the service of the Lord and of his Church.

Pope Francis appears on the central lodge of St. Peter's Basilica yesterday (April 20) to bestow the Urbi et Orbi (Latin for to the city and the world) blessing at the end of the Easter mass. | AP

“He taught us to live the values of the Gospel with faithfulness, courage, and universal love, especially for the poorest and most marginalised.

“With immense gratitude for his example as a true disciple of the Lord Jesus, we commend the soul of Pope Francis to the infinite, merciful love of God, One and Tribune.″

Mr Swinney said: “It is with deep sadness I heard the news this morning of the death of Pope Francis.

“He was a voice for peace, tolerance and reconciliation in our society. He brought comfort, assurance and hope to many. May he Rest in Peace.”

Pope Francis become leader of the Catholic Church in 2013. An Argentinian priest known as Jorge Mario Bergoglio, he was the first ever Pope from the Americas or the southern hemisphere and the first from outside Europe in centuries.

Born on 17 December 1936 in the Flores district of Buenos Aires, the eldest of five children in a middle class family of Italian immigrants.

After leaving school, he qualified as a chemical technician going on to take a job in the food processing industry.

At the age of 21 he underwent surgery to have part of one of his lungs removed thanks to a severe bout of pleurisy which was to leave him vulnerable to the winter weather.

It was around that time that he felt his vocation, which hit him when he stopped off at church on his way to join friends to celebrate a holiday.

“It surprised me, caught me with my guard down,” he later recalled.

He entered the Jesuit novitiate in 1958 and, after studying humanities, philosophy and theology in Chile and Argentina, was ordained a priest in 1969.

He sought to breathe new life into the church he had served for more than half a century - after time as a nightclub bouncer and a janitor before being called to the priesthood.

In one of his first public pronouncements as pontiff, he declared: “Who am I to judge?” in response to a question about homosexuality.

But after he suggested divorced and remarried Catholics could, under certain circumstances, receive holy communion the backlash was such that he was described in the Guardian as “one of the most hated men in the world today”.

However, for all the sound and fury, critics on the liberal wing of the church complained that in practice little changed when it came to issues such as the ordination women and married men, or same-sex marriage.

He will be the first Pope in more than a Century to be buried outside the Vatican, with plans for his funeral having been confirmed in recent weeks. Instead, he will be laid to rest in the Basilica of St Mary Major, one of four major papal basilicas in Rome.