Rumours are mounting that Pope Francis is on the verge of resigning. Debate about the Pontiff’s poor health have persisted for some time, with the Holy Father recently seen in a wheelchair. Now the Pope has postponed a trip to Africa – amid fresh attacks against Nigerian Catholics – sending the rumour mill into overdrive.
The Holy Father’s decreased mobility is believed to be a factor in the decision. According to Matteo Bruni, director of the Holy See Press Office: “At the request of his doctors, and in order not to jeopardise the results of the therapy that he is undergoing for his knee, the Holy Father has been forced to postpone, with regret, his Apostolic Journey to the Democratic Republic of Congo and to South Sudan”.
Speculation about the Pope’s future was also renewed by the announcement of a proposed visit to L’Aquila in Abruzzo, Italy in August – something other Pontiffs have undertaken before retirement. Included in the trip for the Perdonanza Celestiniana festival will be a Mass in the square outside of the Basilica of Santa Maria di Collemaggio, burial place of Pope St. Celestine V, who also resigned the office after five months.
When Pope Benedict visited in 2009, he placed the pallium he wore during his installation Mass on top of Pope Celestine’s casket. When Pope Benedict resigned in 2013, there was speculation that the earlier gesture had been a sign. At the start of his own papacy, Pope Francis said he would like to see the resignation of popes become more normal, and in 2015 said he had a feeling his pontificate would be brief, describing his predecessor’s decision to resign as “courageous”, perhaps hinting at his own potential resignation.
Pope Francis will also soon host a consistory to create 21 new cardinals alongside a meeting with cardinals to discuss reform of the Roman Curia, the body through which the affairs of the Church are conducted, and where he is likely to discuss reforms to Vatican administration, including imposing term limits on the chiefs of Vatican offices and allowing women to hold such posts. Sixteen of the new cardinals are electors under 80 and eligible to enter a conclave to elect a new Pope. Among the twenty-one will be eleven cardinals from the developing world, with a pivot towards Asia.
One significant appointment however was Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego, a progressive whose appointment bypassed conservative archbishops in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Bishop McElroy has been an outspoken ally of the Pope’s with a welcoming approach towards gay Catholics. Bishop McElroy has opposed conservative clerics who want to ban Catholic politicians receiving communion because of their stance on abortion.
The fact that after the consistory, 82 of the 132 cardinal electors will have been appointed by the Pope suggests the Holy Father’s objective is to ensure any successor will reflect his own position on several key issues. This may suggest the Pope is planning for a Church soon to be without him but with his legacy ensured. Aside from a more liberal position on key issues, the Pope has been criticised for not being outspoken enough on the plight of Christians in China and India, with particularly criticism of his relatively accommodating attitude towards the Chinese Communist Party.
Whether or not the Pope will want two former living former Pontiffs in the background while a new Pope takes over, and given that the Holy Father may feel he has more work to accomplish, could mean the speculation of any resignation is just mere hype. That said, Pope Francis is now the same age Pope Benedict was when he resigned, and is clearly becoming more frail, aware too of his many enemies within the Church. With the consistory he may well have guaranteed his position on Catholic teaching will be reflected in any successor. The timing of all this is certainly noteworthy. The world’s Catholics can only wait and see at what will happen next.
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