Pope Francis has dismissed reports that he plans to resign in the near future, saying he will be traveling to Canada this month and hopefully soon thereafter. Will be able to go to Moscow and Kyiv soon. In an exclusive interview at his Vatican residence, Francis also denied rumors that he had cancer, joking that his doctors “told me nothing about it”, and first described the knee condition that caused him prevented from taking out. some duty.
In a 90-minute conversation on Saturday afternoon, conducted in Italian with no aide present, the 85-year-old pontiff also reiterated his condemnation of abortion after the US Supreme Court ruling last month.
Rumors have spread in the media that a combination of events to take place in late August, including meetings with world cardinals to discuss a new Vatican constitution, a ceremony to induct new cardinals and the visit of the Italian city of L’Aquila The tour is involved, one can foresee. L’Aquila announcing the resignation is associated with Pope Celestine V, who resigned from the papacy in 1294. Pope Benedict XVI visited the city for four years before resigning in 2013, the first pope to do so in nearly 600 years.
But Francis, alert and relaxed throughout the interview, laughed at the idea as he discussed a wide range of international and church issues. “All these coincidences made some people think that it would be the ‘sculpture’,” he said. “But it never came to my mind. Not at the moment, not at the moment, no. Really!”
However, Francis reiterated his often stated position that he might someday resign if ill health makes it impossible for him to run a church – something that was almost unimaginable before Benedict XVI. Asked when he thought it could happen, he said: “We don’t know. God will say.”
Knee Injury
The interview took place on the day he was to leave for the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan, a trip he had to cancel because doctors said he might have to miss a trip to Canada from July 24 to 30 unless he Don’t agree 20 days therapy and rest for his right knee. He said the decision to cancel the Africa trip has caused him “great pain”, especially as he seeks to promote peace between the two countries.
Francis used a cane when he walked into a reception on the ground floor of the Santa Marta Guest House, where he has lived since his election in 2013, leaving the papal apartment in the Apostolic Palace used by his predecessors. In the room is a copy of one of Francis’ favorite paintings: “Mary, Untear of Knots”, made in about 1700 by the German Joachim Schmidner.
When asked how he was, the Pope joked: “I’m still alive!” He described his illness publicly for the first time, saying he had “a small fracture” in his knee when he took a wrong step while a ligament was swollen. “I’m fine, I’m slowly getting better,” he said, weaving the fracture in, helped by laser and magnet therapy.
Francis also shrugged off rumors that a cancer was found a year ago when he underwent a six-hour operation to remove part of his colon caused by diverticulitis, a common condition among the elderly. “It (the operation) was a huge success,” he said, laughing that “he didn’t tell me anything” about the alleged cancer, which he dismissed as “court gossip.”
But he said he did not want to operate on his knee because last year’s surgery had negative side effects from the general anesthetic.
Pope’s visit to Moscow?
Talking about the situation in Ukraine, Francis said there have been contacts between Vatican Foreign Minister Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov regarding a possible visit to Moscow. The early signs were not good. No pope has ever been to Moscow, and Francis has repeatedly condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; Last Thursday, he indirectly accused her of waging a “brutal and senseless war of aggression”.
When the Vatican first asked about a visit several months ago, Francis said Moscow replied that it was not the right time. But he indicated that something may change now.
“I want to go to (Ukraine), and I wanted to go to Moscow first. We exchanged messages about this because I wondered if the Russian president would give me a little window to work for peace. … And now it is possible, after coming back from Canada, it is possible that I will manage to go to Ukraine. “The first thing is to go to Russia to try to help in some way, But I would like to go to both the capitals.”
abortion decision
When asked about the US Supreme Court ruling overturning the landmark Roe v Wade decision, Francis said he respected the decision but knew enough to talk about it from a legal standpoint. Not there. But he strongly condemned abortion, comparing it to “hiring a hit man”. The Catholic Church teaches that life begins from the moment of conception.
“I ask: is it legitimate, is it right to end human life to solve a problem?”
Francis was asked about a debate in the United States whether a Catholic politician who personally opposes abortion but supports the right of others to choose, should be allowed to receive the Sacrament of Communion. needed.
For example, House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi is barred from receiving it by the conservative archbishop of her home diocese of San Francisco, but regularly gives communion in a parish in Washington, DC. Last week, he received the sacrament at a papal mass in the Vatican.
“When the church loses its pastoral nature, when a bishop loses its pastoral nature, it causes a political problem,” the pope said. “Thats all I can say.”
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