Pope Francisco denied that he plans to resign in the near future, ratified his visit to Canada at the end of the month and announced that he hopes to soon be able to travel to Moscow and kyiv to help peace in the midst of war triggered by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“It was never in my head. Not at the moment, really,” the pontiff replied when asked, in an interview with the Reuters news agency, about the rumors of a possible resignation during the European summer.
Interpretations of his possible resignation began to circulate in conservative Vatican circles after the pontiff scheduled a visit to central Italy similar to one made by his predecessor Benedict XVI before resigning in February 2013.
Furthermore, as the Pope announced that at the end of next month he will create 21 new cardinalsamong them 16 with the possibility of voting in a possible conclaveRumors about his possible resignation had been triggered.
The 85-year-old pontiff did highlight Benedict XVI’s decision “as a good thing for the Church, he has told the Popes to stop in time” but cleared up any doubts about an eventual immediate resignation.
In this framework, he repeated that one day he could evaluate his resignation if his health worsens, but that “it is not known, God will say” about it.
The Argentine pontiff underwent abdominal surgery in 2021 for diverticulitis, and this year he was shown in a wheelchair for the first time from a right knee ailment that forced him to suspend the planned trip to South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo from July 2 to 7 and that he claimed to be able to do “later”.
“I’m better, I’m getting better little by little,” the Pope said, acknowledging that he is being treated with laser and magnetic therapy, while in recent weeks he was shown walking with a cane in images that reflected his recovery after being forced to use a wheelchair in May.
“Technically, the calcification has already been done, thanks to all the work done with laser, technotherapy and magnetotherapy. And now you have to start moving because there is a danger of losing muscle if you don’t move. It is a ligament that has become inflamed, and I was wrong with this and a bone moved, a fracture there and that’s the problem,” he revealed for the first time about the origin of the discomfort in his leg.
About last year’s intervention, he described it as “a success” and denied the versions about an alleged cancer, which he considered “palace gossip”.
“Yes, they removed 33 centimeters from the colon, from the sigmoid, due to diverticulitis. It went well, it was more than six hours of anesthesia and that is why I did not want to have this operation here (on the knee), because the anesthesia leaves traces. At 10 months, a year”, he explained about the refusal to an intervention this year to facilitate their displacement.
Francisco, who will travel to Canada from July 24 to 30, said that in addition He is considering a visit to Russia and the Ukraine upon his return from the North American country.
“I would like to go, and I wanted to go to Moscow first,” he said when asked about a possible visit to kyiv.
“We exchanged messages about this because I thought if the Russian president would give me a small window to serve the cause of peace. And now it is possible, after I return from Canada, it is possible that I will manage to go to Ukraine,” he said.
In this context, he maintained that “the first thing is to go to Russia to try to help in some way, but I would like to go to the two capitals.”
After a series of unsuccessful attempts to obtain the approval of Russian President Vladimir Putin for a Vatican rapprochement, the Pope acknowledged that now “a very open, very cordial, very diplomatic dialogue in the positive sense of the word remains. well, the door is open,” he acknowledged.