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50 free Pope Francis trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Jorge Mario Bergoglio worked as a bouncer and a lab technician, lost part of a lung at 21, and was a Jesuit provincial before he turned 40. In 2013 the cardinals made him the first pope from the Americas, the first Jesuit and the first Francis, and he began by saying "Buonasera" from the balcony and riding the minibus back to the guesthouse with everyone else. Twelve years later he became the first pope in more than 350 years to be buried at Santa Maria Maggiore. This Pope Francis trivia quiz runs 50 questions across his life and papacy: Flores and his Piedmontese father, the Salesian school and the chemistry diploma, the Jesuit novitiate and Ireland, the slums of Buenos Aires, the 2005 and 2013 conclaves, why he chose the name Francis, the Domus Sanctae Marthae, the foot-washing at Casal del Marmo, Lumen fidei and Laudato si', the Year of Mercy, the death penalty catechism change, Cuba and Abu Dhabi and Ur, the Canada apology, San Lorenzo, Time and Rolling Stone, Instagram, his final Easter and the election of Leo XIV. Easy questions come first; the last third is for people who know their Evangelii gaudium from their Fratelli tutti. Every answer is verified against Wikipedia's biography of Francis, with the supporting sentence quoted under each question. Fans of this quiz should also try our Vatican and world religions quizzes.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Pope Francis was born in 1936 in which country?
Argentina
He was the first pope from the Americas and the first born outside Europe since the Syrian Gregory III in the eighth century.
Q 02What was Pope Francis's birth name?
Jorge Mario Bergoglio
The other three names belong to popes of the twentieth century.
Q 03Francis was the first pope from which religious order?
The Jesuits
He entered the Society of Jesus as a novice on 11 March 1958 and took final vows in 1973.
Q 04Francis was elected pope on 13 March of which year?
2013
The conclave followed the first papal resignation in nearly 600 years.
Q 05On his election in 2013, Francis chose his papal name in honour of which saint?
Francis of Assisi
Brazilian Cardinal Cláudio Hummes had embraced him during the voting and whispered, "Don't forget the poor."
Q 06Whose resignation led to the conclave that elected Francis?
Benedict XVI
Francis referred to him from the balcony as "the bishop emeritus of Rome" and asked the crowd to pray for him.
Q 07In which Buenos Aires neighbourhood was Bergoglio born?
Flores
He was the eldest of five children of an Italian immigrant accountant and a Buenos Aires-born housewife.
Q 08Bergoglio's father emigrated from which region of Italy?
Piedmont
The family left Italy in 1929 to escape Mussolini's fascism, not for economic reasons, according to his sister.
Q 09Bergoglio graduated from technical secondary school with a diploma qualifying him as what?
A chemical technician
He then worked in the food section of a laboratory, and earlier had been a bouncer and a janitor.
Q 10Which of these jobs did the young Bergoglio hold before the priesthood?
Nightclub bouncer
He also worked as a janitor and in the food section of the Hickethier-Bachmann laboratory.
Q 11At 21, after life-threatening pneumonia, Bergoglio had part of which organ removed?
A lung
Doctors later said the excision did not significantly affect his health, though it reduced his respiratory reserve.
Q 12As a Jesuit novice, Bergoglio studied the humanities in which country?
Chile
He took his initial perpetual vows on 12 March 1960.
Q 13Bergoglio was ordained a priest in which year?
1969
Archbishop Ramón José Castellano ordained him on 13 December, four days before his 33rd birthday.
Q 14Bergoglio's 1973 pilgrimage to Jerusalem was cut short by the outbreak of which war?
Q 21Per a leaked cardinal's diary, how many votes did Bergoglio get on the third ballot of the 2005 conclave?
40
He is said to have fallen back to 26 on the decisive fourth ballot after pleading with cardinals not to vote for him.
Q 22On which ballot of the 2013 conclave was Francis elected?
Fifth
It was the second day of the conclave; Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran made the Habemus papam announcement.
Q 23With what single Italian word did Francis greet St Peter's Square on the night of his election?
Buonasera
He described himself as a pope from almost the end of the world.
The Yom Kippur War
That July he had been named Jesuit provincial superior of his home country for a six-year term.
Q 15Bergoglio spent the first three months of 1980 in which country, learning English?
Ireland
He stayed at the Jesuit centre at Dublin's Milltown Institute before becoming rector at San Miguel.
Q 16Bergoglio's unfinished doctoral research in Frankfurt focused on which theologian?
Romano Guardini
He returned home early to serve as confessor to the Jesuit community in Córdoba.
Q 17Bergoglio's episcopal motto, Miserando atque eligendo, was drawn from a homily by which saint?
Bede
It means "because he saw him through the eyes of mercy and chose him," from Bede's homily on the calling of Matthew.
Q 18Bergoglio became archbishop of Buenos Aires in which year?
1998
He succeeded Cardinal Antonio Quarracino, and doubled the number of priests working in the city's slums.
Q 19Bergoglio's work in the shantytowns of Buenos Aires earned him what nickname?
The slum bishop
The Spanish is "villero bishop"; he also rode public transport and cooked his own meals.
Q 20Which pope made Bergoglio a cardinal in 2001?
John Paul II
His titular church was San Roberto Bellarmino; he limited his Rome trips to "lightning visits."
Q 24On his first balcony appearance, Francis declined which traditional garment?
The red ermine-trimmed mozzetta
He also kept the iron pectoral cross he had worn as archbishop instead of a gold one.
Q 25Instead of the papal apartments, Francis chose to live where?
The Domus Sanctae Marthae guesthouse
He rode back there on the minibus with the cardinals the night he was elected, and died there in 2025.
Q 26Had he been elected in 2005, Bergoglio said he would have taken which papal name?
John XXIV
He wanted to honour John XXIII, "the Good Pope"; in 2013 cardinals jokingly suggested Adrian or Clement.
Q 27Francis was the first pope since which 10th-century pontiff to take a name never used by a predecessor?
Lando
The Vatican clarified he was simply "Francis," with no regnal number.
Q 28On his first Holy Thursday as pope, Francis washed juvenile offenders' feet at which Rome detention facility?
Casal del Marmo
Two of the twelve were young women and two were Muslim, a first for a papal foot-washing.
Q 29Francis's first encyclical, Lumen fidei, was largely written by whom?
Benedict XVI
It awaited a final draft when his predecessor retired; Francis published it in June 2013.
Q 30Francis's 2015 encyclical on care for the planet is titled what?
Laudato si'
The title, "Praise be to you," comes from the Canticle of the Sun.