Pope Francis had refused to shy away from controversial topics — including illegal immigration, same-sex marriage and the sexual abuse of kids by Catholic priests — in his final major US interview before his death.

The pioneering pontiff also called on world leaders to “negotiate” an end to all wars when he sat at the Vatican for a wide-ranging interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” last May, before his long battle with illness that he finally succumbed to Monday.

During the sit-down, he also spoke of how important it is not to die with a “closed-off heart.”

“A closed heart becomes hardened. It hardens and gets sick. It gets life sick. The heart must be open,” he told anchor Norah O’Donnell.

“It is true that in many people, their selfishness leads them to close up their hearts. But that can be helped by talking, discussing, helping, right?

“Someone who dies with a closed-up heart is a pity. They miss out on a great happiness, that of going forward with an open heart.”

Here are the hot topics Francis openly addressed:

Asked about the crisis plaguing the US as scores of illegal migrants poured across the border under the Biden administration, Francis insisted the migration was actually the “solution.”

“The solution is migration, to open the doors to migration,” he said.

“For an immigration policy to be good, it must have four things: for the migrant to be received, assisted, promoted, and integrated. This is what is most important, to integrate them into the new life.”

Here's how Pope Francis' successor will be chosen:

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During his time at the helm of the church, the pope had decreed that priests could bless same-sex couples, declaring in a 2023 interview that “being homosexual is not a crime.”

“What I allowed was not to bless the union… that cannot be done because that is not the sacrament. I cannot. The Lord made it that way. But to bless each person, yes. The blessing is for everyone,” he said.

“To bless a homosexual-type union, however, goes against the given right, against the law of the Church. But to bless each person, why not? The blessing is for all. Some people were scandalized by this. But why?”

On reforming the church after years of sexual abuse against kids by members of the clergy, Pope Francis insisted more needed to be done to stamp out such violence.

“It must continue to do more. Unfortunately, the tragedy of the abuses is enormous. And against this, an upright conscience and not only to not permit it but to put in place the conditions so that it does not happen,” he said.

When Pope Francis became pontiff: A timeline of his religious journey and career

• Dec. 17, 1936: Jorge Mario Bergoglio is born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the eldest of five children to Mario Jose Bergoglio, an accountant from Italy, and Regina María Sívori, the daughter of Italian immigrants.
• Dec. 13, 1969: Ordained a priest with the Jesuit religious order, which he would lead as Argentina provincial superior during the country’s murderous dictatorship that began in the 1970s.
• May 20, 1992: Named auxiliary bishop of Buenos Aires and in 1998 succeeds Cardinal Antonio Quarracino as archbishop of the Argentine capital.
• Feb. 21, 2001: Elevated to cardinal by Pope John Paul II.
• March 13, 2013: Elected 266th pope, the first from the Americas, the first Jesuit and the first to take the name Francis, after St. Francis of Assisi.

Read more about the life of Pope Francis

“It cannot be tolerated. When there is a case of a religious man or woman who abuses, the full force of the law falls upon them. In this, there has been a great deal of progress.”

On the issues surrounding the raging Russia-Ukraine conflict and the Israel-Hamas war, the pontiff said he consistently prays for peace.

“What I can do is pray,” he said when asked how he could help negotiate peace.

“And also, to suggest, ‘Please, stop. Negotiate.’ A bad deal is always better than an ugly defeat, is it not?” he stressed.

“Negotiate. Negotiate. The white flag is for negotiating, not for surrendering, but for negotiating. And wars are resolved through negotiation. Think of the dead.”

Elsewhere in the wide-ranging interview, Pope Francis said he tried to see hope in everything — even major tragedies.

“You see tragedies, but you also see so many beautiful things,” he said when interviewer Norah O’Donnell asked what gave him hope.

“You see heroic mothers, heroic men, men who have hopes and dreams, women who look to the future? That gives me a lot of hope. People want to live. People forge ahead.

“And people are fundamentally good. We are all fundamentally good. Sometimes we are a little mischievous, sinners, but the heart is good.”

The pope’s remarks resurfaced in the wake of his death on Monday. He was 88.

Francis had suffered a serious bout of double pneumonia earlier this year that saw him hospitalized for 38 days.

The pontiff made his first prolonged public appearance on Sunday since being discharged from hospital on March 23.

In an Easter Sunday message read aloud by an aide as the pope looked on from the main balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, the pontiff had reiterated his call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

Describing the ongoing situation in Gaza as “dramatic and deplorable,” the pope also called Hamas terrorists to release its remaining hostages and condemned what he said was a “worrisome” trend of antisemitism in the world.

“I express my closeness to the sufferings… of all the Israeli people and the Palestinian people,” Francis’ message said.

“I appeal to the warring parties: call a ceasefire, release the hostages and come to the aid of a starving people that aspires to a future of peace.”