Hello and welcome to NewsHour live from the BBC World Service in London. I'm Rebecca Kesbby.

And our focus on the programme today is the death of Pope Francis announced earlier this morning.

Pope Francis was 88 years old and had recently had a prolonged stay in hospital with double pneumonia.

But only yesterday, Easter Sunday in Catholicism and most Christian denominations,

Pope Francis appeared in St Peter's Square at the Vatican in Rome.

He wished everybody a happy Easter and even took a tour around the square in his Pope Mobile,

blessing children and well-wishers as he went.

Today, at the same location, thousands have been gathering in vigil following his death.

As in the past couple of hours, the rosary prayers have been said, beginning with song.

Music rosary prayers have been said beginning with song. All right.

Across the day, as the news of the Pope's death broke, world leaders have paid tribute.

Impromptu prayers and vigils have been held across the globe.

Many churches rang their bells, including in Paris, in Jerusalem and Manila. Music Well, on the program today, we'll be looking back at the life of Pope Francis.

We'll look at his work and leadership in the church and his legacy.

Will the church continue along the road he planned?

First, let's go straight to St. Peter's Square in Rome,

and we're joined live by our religious affairs editor, Alim Mqbal.

And Alim, in the past couple of hours or so,

we've had more details coming from the Vatican about the Pope's health and the moment of death earlier today.

Yes, we have had a notification of death from the Vatican.

It said that essentially what the Pope suffered was a stroke, there was a coma involved, and also then, essentially,

a heart attack, irreversible, cardio-circulatory collapse. And this was the thing. He was, as you

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