Pope Francis didn’t affirm same-sex marriage or lobby for ordaining women as priests. But he gently steered the Catholic Church in a more progressive direction while leading with compassion, openness and humility.

The pontiff’s death initiated a well-structured series of rituals designed to mourn the loss of the 1.3 billion-member church’s leader and to ensure stability with the selection of a new pope.

Pope Francis’s tenure was punctuated by repeated clashes with American political leaders and sweeping efforts to install more liberal-leaning church leaders.