Pope Francis seen during an official visit of Petro Poroshenko the president of Ukraine to the Vatican. Pope Francis has been the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 2013. Francis is the first pope to be a member of the Society of Jesus, the first from the Americas, the first from the Southern Hemisphere, and the first pope from outside Europe since Gregory III, a Syrian who reigned in the 8th century. (Photo by Mykhaylo Palinchak / SOPA Images/Sipa USA)