“This moment is critical now,” Bishop Sean W. Rowe, the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, said. “For those of us who want to embody the Sermon on the Mount, and the Beatitudes, and the love that Jesus showed in the world, this is now more important than ever.”

Pope Francis died quickly on Monday morning from an unexpected stroke without suffering undue pain, and there was nothing that doctors could have done to save his life, the head of the pontiff's medical team said in interviews published on Thursday.