Pope Francis assured that a possible resignation from the pontificate “is not” at this time on his agenda and defended that the position be “ad vitam”, that is, in perpetuity.
“It is true that I wrote my resignation two months after the elections and I delivered this letter to Cardinal Bertone. I do not know where the letter is. I did it in case I have a health problem that prevents me from exercising my ministry and I am not fully aware of resigning “, raised the Pope in a dialogue with African Jesuits at the beginning of February released this Thursday by the magazine La Civiltà Cattolica.
Jorge Bergoglio, from 86 years and in his position since March 2013, he had already revealed at the end of 2022 that a few weeks after being elected he had left a letter of resignation ready in case he could not continue with the Government of the Church, although already then he denied that that moment is going to happen or is even imminent.
“However, this does not mean at all that the resignation of the Popes should become something like a fashion, something normal,” Francis emphasized in that direction in the dialogue with Jesuits in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Pope acknowledged that his predecessor Benedict XVI “had the courage to do it because he did not want to go ahead because of his health,” when he resigned in 2013.
“This is not on my agenda at the moment. I think the Pope’s ministry is ‘ad vitam’. I see no reason why it shouldn’t be like that.”Francisco later sentenced.
“Think that the ministry of the great patriarchs is always for life. And the historical tradition is important. If, on the contrary, we listened to the gossip, then we should change the Pope every six months!”, he added later to deny any close possibility of resignation.
In another dialogue with Jesuits during his six-day African tour at the beginning of February, Francis had also emphasized that the eventual resignation was not “on his mind.”
“But I wrote a letter and delivered it to Cardinal Bertone. Contains my resignation in the event that I am not in a state of health and conscience to be able to resign“, he added in a conversation he had with members of the Society of Jesus of South Sudan.
In this context, Francis recalled that his predecessor from the first half of the 20th century “Pius XII also wrote a letter of resignation, as a precaution in the event that Hitler took him to Germany. In that case, he said that they would capture Eugenio Pacelli and not the Pope.”
