内容摘要：A total solar eclipse will cross North America in April. This animated map shows the path of totality across parts of Mexico, the U.S. and Canada. (Feb. 29) (AP Animation: Panagiotis Mouzakis and Marshall Ritzel)

A total solar eclipse will cross North America in April. This animated map shows the path of totality across parts of Mexico, the U.S. and Canada. (Feb. 29) (AP Animation: Panagiotis Mouzakis and Marshall Ritzel)

— The first from the Jesuit order to be elected pope.— The first to take the name of Francis, after St. Francis of Assisi.

— The first to visit Iraq, meeting its top Shiite Muslim cleric in 2021.As Buenos Aires archbishop, Francis denied himself the luxuries his predecessors enjoyed, riding the bus, cooking his own meals and regularly visiting slums. This, marked by Francis taking the name of the 13th century saint known for personal simplicity. He lived in the Vatican hotel instead of the Apostolic Palace, wore his old orthotic shoes and not the red loafers of the papacy, and set an example to the clerical classes by using compact cars.

Advocating for migrants was one of Francis’ priorities as pope. His’ first trip outside Rome in 2013 was to the Sicilian island of Lampedusa to meet with newly arrived migrants. He denounced the “globalization of indifference” shown to would-be refugees. He prayed for dead migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border in 2016 and brought 12 Syrian Muslims to Rome on his plane after visiting a refugee camp in Lesbos, Greece. His plea for welcome put him at odds with U.S. and European policies. He said in 2016 of then-candidate Donald Trump that anyone building a wall to keep migrants out “is not a Christian.”Early in his papacy, Francis signaled a more welcoming stance toward LGBTQ+ people, declaring “Who am I to judge?” when asked about a gay priest. In a 2023 Associated Press interview, he declared that, “Being homosexual is not a crime,” and later approved blessings for same-sex couples, provided they don’t resemble marriage vows.

Francis became the first pope to use scientific data in a major teaching document and made care for God’s creation a hallmark of his papacy. In 2015, his environmental manifesto “Praised Be,” urged a cultural revolution to correct what he called the “structurally perverse” global economic system that exploits the poor and turned Earth into “an immense pile of filth.” Many popes before him, though, also called for better care for the environment.

The greatest scandal of his papacy came in 2018, when he discredited Chilean victims of clergy sexual abuse by siding with a bishop whom they accused of complicity in their abuse. Realizing his error, he invited them to the Vatican and apologized in person. He also brought the entire Chilean bishops conference to Rome, where he pressed them to resign. He convened a summit of the Catholic hierarchy in 2019 on abuse and sent a strong signal by defrocking former U.S. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick after a Vatican investigation determined he abused minors as well as adults. Francis passed church laws abolishing the use of pontifical secrecy and establishing procedures to investigate bishops who abuse or cover up for predator priests. But he was dogged by high-profile cases where he seemed to side with accused clergy.The global reforestation project One Tree Planted gets part of every purchase from furniture brand Joybird. Herman Miller’s rePurpose program gets used furniture to nonprofit organizations. And Ikea has initiatives like moving to bio-based glue, and instituting a buy-back/re-sell program that saw 230,000 items given a new life in 2022.

For the past five years, the United Nations Refugee Agency’shas helped artisans partner with fashion and home accessories businesses worldwide to create sustainable, fairly traded goods.

New York-based writer Kim Cook covers design and decor topics regularly for The AP. Follow her on Instagram at @kimcookhome.For more AP Lifestyles stories, go to