The Argentine pontiff died at his Santa Marta residence in the Vatican almost a month after leaving hospital following five weeks battling double pneumonia.
“He’s actually returned to the Lord -- and godspeed,“ Italian Cesarina Cireddu told AFP.
Trump -- who drew the ire of Francis with his mass deportations of migrants -- wrote “Rest in Peace” in a social media post and ordered flags to be flown at half mast.
According to the death certificate released by the Vatican, Francis died of a stroke, causing a coma and “irreversible” heart failure.
The pope had seemed exhausted when being driven around St Peter’s Square on Sunday and a Vatican source said the pontiff had kept up a punishing schedule even though he knew his health was fading.
Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the Vatican official known as the Camerlengo and who now takes over the immediate running of church affairs, announced Francis’s death.
The pope’s apartment was formally sealed and his body moved to a wood and zinc coffin in the Santa Marta chapel on Monday evening, the Vatican said. The coffin will be moved to St Peter’s Basilica, probably on Wednesday, to lie in state.
Francis had already announced he would be buried in the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. In his will, he said he wanted a simple, unadorned tomb “with the only inscription: Franciscus”, Francis in Latin.
‘Terrible shock’
Caroline Wahl, visiting from Germany, said the pope had looked “weak” when they saw him on Easter Sunday, adding that thinking about him now gave her “goosebumps”.
In Gaza, where the war between Israel and Hamas rages on, the Christian community feels “as though a light of love and peace has been extinguished”, said George Ayad, 67.
The lights of the Eiffel tower in Paris were turned off on Monday night, while the Colosseum in Rome was to go dark on Tuesday.
Francis, born Jorge Bergoglio, was the first Jesuit to lead the Catholic world and the first from the Americas.
A football-loving former archbishop of Buenos Aires, Francis sought to forge a more open and compassionate Church.
His views riled Church traditionalists, while his outspoken opinions often clashed with those of politicians.
Argentine football great Lionel Messi thanked Francis for “making the world a better place” as the late pontiff’s favourite club, San Lorenzo, paid tribute to “a thoughtful, open-minded, cultured man”.
Francis, who had part of his lung removed as a young man, almost died twice while in hospital -- but still defied doctor’s orders to take two months off after returning home.
But he struggled to speak, and delegated the traditional Easter Sunday “Urbi et Orbi” (”To the City and the World”) benediction to an associate.
But he never took a day off and made frequent trips abroad, including a four-nation Asia-Pacific tour last September which drew huge crowds.
When Francis took over, the Catholic Church was beset by infighting, and plagued by a global scandal over cover-ups of clerical sex abuse of children.
However, critics accused him of creating doctrinal confusion and failing to defend traditional Catholic beliefs on key issues such as abortion and divorce.
“In this realm, where Francis had supreme power, he refused to make the necessary changes,“ said Anne Barrett Doyle from BishopAccountability.org, complaining of a lack of external oversight and transparency.
“It will forever tarnish the legacy of this remarkable man.”
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