Pope on well being, critics and future papacy

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis says he hasn’t even thought-about issuing norms to manage future papal resignations and plans to proceed for so long as he can as bishop of Rome, regardless of a wave of assaults by some top-ranked cardinals and bishops.

In his first interview because the Dec. 31 death of retired Pope Benedict XVI, Francis addressed his well being, his critics and the subsequent part of his preach, which marks its tenth anniversary in March with out Benedict’s shadow within the background.

“I’m in good well being. For my age, I’m regular,” the 86-year-old pontiff stated Tuesday, although he revealed that diverticulosis, or bulges in his intestinal wall, had “returned.” Francis had 33 centimeters (13 inches) of his giant gut eliminated in 2021 due to what the Vatican stated was irritation that triggered a narrowing of his colon.

He added {that a} slight bone fracture in his knee from a fall had healed with out surgical procedure after laser and magnet remedy.

“I would die tomorrow, nevertheless it’s beneath management. I’m in good well being,” he instructed The Related Press along with his typical wry humorousness.

Hypothesis about Francis’ well being and the way forward for his preach has solely risen following the demise of Benedict, whose 2013 resignation marked a turning level for the Catholic Church as the primary pontiff in six centuries to retire.

Some commentators imagine Francis could be freer to maneuver now that Benedict, who lived out his 10-year retirement within the Vatican, is gone. Others recommend that any type of ecclesial peace that had reigned was over and that Francis is now extra uncovered to critics, disadvantaged of the moderating affect Benedict performed in preserving the conservative Catholic fringe at bay.

Francis acknowledged the knives have been out, however appeared nearly sanguine about it.

“I wouldn’t relate it to Benedict, however due to the wear-and-tear of a authorities of 10 years,” Francis stated of his papacy. At first, his election was greeted with a way of “shock” a few South American pope, then got here discomfort “once they began to see my flaws and didn’t like them,” he stated.

“The one factor I ask is that they do it to my face, as a result of that’s how all of us develop, proper?” he added.

Francis praised Benedict as a “gentleman,” and stated of his demise: “I misplaced a dad.”

“For me, he was a safety. Within the face of a doubt, I might ask for the automotive and go to the monastery and ask,” he stated of his visits to Benedict’s retirement house for counsel. “I misplaced a great companion.”

Some cardinals and canon legal professionals have stated the Vatican should difficulty norms to manage future papal retirements to stop the few hiccups that occurred throughout Benedict’s unexpectedly lengthy retirement, throughout which he remained some extent of reference for some conservatives and traditionalists who refused to acknowledge Francis’ legitimacy.

From the title Benedict selected (emeritus pope) to the (white) cassock he wore to his occasional public remarks (on priestly celibacy and intercourse abuse), these commentators stated norms must make clear there is only one reigning pope for the sake of the unity of the church.

Francis stated issuing such norms hadn’t even occurred to him.

“I’m telling you the reality,” he stated, including that the Vatican wanted extra expertise with papal retirements earlier than getting down to “regularize or regulate” them.

Francis has stated Benedict “opened the door” to future resignations, and that he too would think about stepping down. He repeated Tuesday that if he have been to resign he’d be known as the emeritus bishop of Rome and would dwell within the residence for retired clergymen within the diocese of Rome.

Francis stated Benedict’s resolution to dwell in a transformed monastery within the Vatican Gardens was a “good intermediate answer,” however that future retired popes would possibly wish to do issues in another way.

“He was nonetheless ‘enslaved’ as a pope, no?” Francis stated. “Of the imaginative and prescient of a pope, of a system. ‘Slave’ within the good sense of the phrase: In that he wasn’t utterly free, as he would have preferred to have returned to his Germany and continued learning theology.”

By one calculation, Benedict’s demise removes the primary impediment to Francis resigning, because the prospect of two pensioner popes was by no means an choice. However Francis stated Benedict’s demise hadn’t altered his calculations. “It didn’t even happen to me to write down a will,” he stated.

As for his personal near-term future, Francis emphasised his function as “bishop of Rome” versus pontiff and stated of his plans: “Proceed being bishop, bishop of Rome in communion with all of the bishops of the world.” He stated he needed to place to relaxation the idea of the papacy as an influence participant or papal “courtroom.”

Francis additionally addressed the criticism from cardinals and bishops that burst into public within the weeks since Benedict’s demise, saying it’s disagreeable — “like a rash that bothers you a bit” — however that’s higher than preserving it beneath wraps.

“You favor that they don’t criticize, for the sake of tranquility,” Francis stated. “However I desire that they do it as a result of which means there’s freedom to talk.”

“If it’s not like this, there could be a dictatorship of distance, as I name it, the place the emperor is there and nobody can inform him something. No, allow them to converse as a result of … criticism lets you develop and enhance issues.”

The first salvo in the wave of attacks got here from Benedict’s longtime secretary, Archbishop Georg Gaenswein, who revealed the unhealthy blood that gathered over the past 10 years in a tell-all memoir printed within the days after Benedict’s funeral.

In one of the explosive sections, Gaenswein revealed that Benedict realized by studying the Vatican every day newspaper L’Osservatore Romano that Francis had reversed one of many former pope’s most important liturgical choices and re-imposed restrictions on celebrating the Previous Latin Mass.

Just a few days later, the Vatican was rattled anew by the demise of one other conservative stalwart, Cardinal George Pell, and revelations that Pell was the writer of a devastating memorandum that circulated final yr that known as the Francis preach a “disaster” and a “catastrophe.”

The memo, which was initially printed beneath the pseudonym “Demos,” listed all the issues within the Vatican beneath Francis, from its precarious funds to the pontiff’s preaching fashion, and issued bullet factors for what a future pope ought to do to repair them.

Francis acknowledged Pell’s criticism however nonetheless sang his praises for having been his “right-hand man” on reforming the Vatican’s funds as his first financial system minister.

“Although they are saying he criticized me, nice, he has the precise. Criticism is a human proper,” Francis stated. However he added: “He was an incredible man. Nice.”