Pope Francis resigns? Every time Bergoglio spoke of his resignation

One day after invoking a phrase from the Bible during the Angelus that can be read as an allusion to a possible withdrawal, Pope Francis underlined this this Monday “health is not a luxury”an issue that is at the center of concerns regarding the pontiff and fuels continuous indiscretions about future decisions.

In a meeting with doctors and members of the Italian Federation of Radiologists, Pope Francis said on Monday that “a world that discards the sick, that does not help those who cannot afford treatment, he is cynical and has no future“.

During the meeting, the pontiff called on all states to deploy all their “resources and strategies” to guarantee everyone the right to decent health coverage, and asked professionals to “always”maintain their ethical values as an indispensable reference” in carrying out one’s work.

The references to health launched by the Pope are always analyzed from the perspective of what they could mean for his future at the helm of the Catholic Church, a topic more than ever in the spotlight after the death of Benedict XVI.

Other references

The Pope spoke about his own health and its relationship to his ability to do his job. He just pulled it out of a possible waiver. In June 2022, Pope Francis stated that he would rather resign than undergo surgery.

“Before the operation, I quit!” said in the middle of last year.

According to Vatican sources, the sentence was said in a joking tonein line with the pontiff’s reluctance to want to undergo surgery after what, according to him, were anesthesia problems during the operation which removed 30 centimeters of his large intestine due to infectious diverticulitis.

The most recent reference to his possible resignation occurred this Sunday, when Pope Francis used the Gospel of the day – which evokes the passage in which the apostle John steps aside and gives way to Jesus – to speak of the importance of “freedom from attachments” and the importance of “step aside at the right time”.

Many have interpreted the phrase primarily as a message to Benedict XVI’s secretary, Georg Gänsweinwho launched harsh criticisms of Bergoglio after Ratzinger’s death and then in the publication of a book entitled “Nothing but the truth”.

Others interpreted it as talking about himself. The versions about a possible resignation of Pope Francis are not new. Indeed, date back to the beginning of his pontificate.

The resignation is already written

It was at the end of 2022 that Pope Francis confirmed that he had signed a waiver “in case of medical impediment”, which he drafted in 2013 and delivered to a trusted collaborator of his.

“I have already signed my resignationHis words came in response to a question about a possible force majeure reason for leaving the post to which he was elected on March 13, 2013.

“It was Tarcisio Bertone, the Secretary of State. I signed and told him: ‘In case of impediment for health or other reasons, here is my resignation. they already have it‘” the pope added, referring to the Italian cardinal who held the position of Vatican “number two” until October 2013.

The pontiff also said What are your plans if this possibility arises. In an interview with Televisa Univision last July, the pontiff assured that if he were to resign he would not choose to live in the Vatican or return to Argentina, but he would prefer to find a church in Rome where he could continue to confess. And he also clarified that he will not be pope emeritus, a position that Benedict XVI created for himself on the day of his resignation.

Clarin Editorial