Trapped by pain in his knee and forced to use a wheelchair in recent weeks, the 85-year-old pope postponed a July trip to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan last week. He also announced an unusual decision to hold a conference to name new cardinals during a month-long holiday at the Vatican and arranged meetings to ensure his reforms remain intact. Pope Francis (photo yesterday) fueled speculation that he might resign after postponing a trip to Africa and announcing an unusual cardinal meeting The emergency group will be held on August 27, a late summer month at the Catholic headquarters, to create 21 new cardinals – 16 of whom will be under the age of 80, making them eligible to elect a successor to a future conclave. . Since becoming Pope in 2013, the Argentine pope has created 83 cardinals in a move to shape the future of the Catholic Church, in part to counter Europe’s historically dominant influence and reflect its values. On August 28, Francis will then visit L’Aquila and the tomb of Celestine V – the first pope to resign in the 13th century. He then joins the world’s cardinals – many of whom are meeting their peers for the first time – in two days of talks on reforming the Roman Curia, which Francis announced in March with the unveiling of a new constitution. The overthrow of the Roman Curia by Francis seeks to shift the Church back to its pastoral roots, allows lay Catholics to run Vatican divisions, and creates a tribunal specifically for charitable works among other reforms. The moves sparked speculation about his plans for the future, including the most radical – that he planned to resign. The resignation of a Pope was once almost unthinkable until Benedict XVI ousted his reign in 2013, citing his declining physical and mental health. In 2014, a year after his election to replace Benedict, Francis himself told reporters that if his health prevented him from serving as pope, he would also consider resigning. Francis previously told reporters that if his health prevented him from serving as Pope, he would consider resigning (photo yesterday) “He (Benedict) opened a door, the door to retired priests,” the pope said at the time. Most recently in May, according to various Italian media, Francis joked about his knee during a closed-door meeting with bishops: “Instead of surgery, I will resign.” But Vatican insiders still do not believe that Francis is on the verge of handing over the papal keys. A source told AFP: “In the Pope’s circle, the majority of people do not really believe in the possibility of resignation.” Rumors within the island Roman Curia – the powerful governing body of the Catholic Church – are not new and are often fueled by those interested, said Italian Vatican expert Marco Politis. “These rumors are being encouraged by the Pope’s opponents who only want to see Francis leave,” he told AFP. A trip to Canada in late July is still on the pope’s schedule, and the pope continues to receive knee injections and physical therapy, according to the Vatican. As a child, Francis had partially removed one of his lungs. Today, in addition to the problem in his knee, he suffers from recurrent pain in the sciatic nerve. Rumors of a resignation also erupted last year after Francis underwent colon surgery, prompting him to tell a Spanish radio station that the idea “had not even crossed my mind”. Politis said about the latest rumors of resignation: “At this stage, it is a matter of realism and not worrying”. He said it was “difficult to imagine” that Francis would resign while the Synod of Bishops – an initiative that makes sense for Francis to study how the Church is progressing more comprehensively – is under way, which is about to end. 2023. Alberto Melloni, a professor of Christianity and secretary of the John XXIII Foundation for Religious Studies in Bologna, told AFP that “absurd” speculation had been made about the pope’s health and intentions. “These are things in which there is a desire to be understood, to speculate, but there are few things to say,” he said.
