Pope Francis retirement rumors are swirling in Italian and Catholic media : NPR & More News Here

ROME — Pope Francis added gas to rumors about the way forward for his hold forth by saying he would go to the central Italian metropolis of L’Aquila in August for a feast initiated by Pope Celestine V, one of many few pontiffs who resigned earlier than Pope Benedict XVI stepped down in 2013.

Italian and Catholic media have been rife with unsourced hypothesis that the 85-year-old Francis could be planning to observe in Benedict’s footsteps, given his elevated mobility issues which have pressured him to make use of a wheelchair for the final month.

Those rumors gained steam final week when Francis introduced a consistory to create 21 new cardinals scheduled for Aug. 27. Sixteen of these cardinals are below age 80 and eligible to vote in a conclave to elect Francis’ successor.

Once they are added to the ranks of princes of the church, Francis can have stacked the College of Cardinals with 83 of the 132 voting-age cardinals. While there is no such thing as a assure how the cardinals would possibly vote, the probabilities that they may faucet a successor who shares Francis’ pastoral priorities turn into ever larger.

In saying the Aug. 27 consistory, Francis additionally introduced he would host two days of talks the next week to temporary the cardinals about his current apostolic structure reforming the Vatican forms. That doc, which works into impact Sunday, permits girls to move Vatican places of work, imposes time period limits on priestly Vatican staff and positions the Holy See as an establishment on the service of native church buildings, moderately than vice versa.

Francis was elected pope in 2013 on a mandate to reform the Roman Curia. Now that the nine-year challenge has been rolled out and no less than partially carried out, Francis’ principal activity as pope has in some methods been achieved.

All of which made Saturday’s in any other case routine announcement of a pastoral go to to L’Aquila carry extra speculative weight than it would in any other case have.

Notable was the timing: The Vatican and the remainder of Italy are normally on vacation in August to mid-September, with all however important enterprise closed. Calling a significant consistory in late August to create new cardinals, gathering churchmen for 2 days of talks on implementing his reform and making a symbolically vital pastoral go to suggests Francis might need out-of-the-ordinary enterprise in thoughts.

“With today’s news that @Pontifex will go to L’Aquila in the very middle of the August consistory, it all got even more intriguing,” tweeted Vatican commentator Robert Mickens, linking to an essay he had revealed in La Croix International in regards to the rumors swirling round the way forward for the hold forth.

The basilica in L’Aquila hosts the tomb of Celestine V, a hermit pope who resigned after 5 months in 1294, overwhelmed by the job. In 2009, Benedict visited L’Aquila, which had been devastated by a current earthquake and prayed at Celestine’s tomb, leaving his pallium stole on it.

No one on the time appreciated the importance of the gesture. But 4 years later, the 85-year-old Benedict would observe in Celestine’s footsteps and resign, saying he not had the power of physique and thoughts to hold on the trials of the papacy.

The Vatican introduced Saturday Francis would go to L’Aquila to have a good time Mass on Aug. 28 and open the “Holy Door” on the basilica internet hosting Celestine’s tomb. The timing coincides with the L’Aquila church’s celebration of the Feast of Forgiveness, which was created by Celestine in a papal bull.

No pope has travelled to L’Aquila since to shut out the annual feast, which celebrates the sacrament of forgiveness so pricey to Francis, famous the present archbishop of L’Aquila, Cardinal Giuseppe Petrocchi.

“We hope that all people, especially those harmed by conflicts and internal divisions, might (come) and find the path of solidarity and peace,” he mentioned in a press release saying the go to.

Francis has praised Benedict’s choice to retire as “opening the door” for future popes to do the identical, and he had initially predicted a brief papacy for himself of two to 5 years.

Nine years later, Francis has proven no indicators he needs to step down, and he has main initiatives nonetheless on the horizon.

In addition to imminent journeys this yr to Congo, South Sudan, Canada and Kazakhstan, in 2023 he has scheduled a significant assembly of the world’s bishops to debate the rising decentralization of the Catholic Church, in addition to the continued implementation of his reforms.

But Francis has been hobbled by the strained ligaments in his proper knee which have made strolling painful and tough. He has informed associates he would not wish to bear surgical procedure, reportedly due to his response to anesthesia final July when he had 33 centimeters (13 inches) of his giant gut eliminated.

This week, one in all his closest advisers and associates, Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, mentioned speak of a papal resignation or the top of Francis’ hold forth was unfounded.

“I think these are optical illusions, cerebral illusions,” Maradiaga informed Religion Digital, a Spanish-language Catholic web site.

Christopher Bellitto, a church historian at Kean University in Union, New Jersey, famous that the majority Vatican watchers count on Francis will ultimately resign, however not earlier than Benedict dies. The 95-year-old retired pope is bodily frail however nonetheless alert and receiving occasional guests in his dwelling in the Vatican gardens.

“He’s not going to have two former popes floating around,” Bellitto mentioned in an e mail. Referring to Francis’ deliberate go to to L’Aquila, he instructed not studying an excessive amount of into it, noting that Benedict’s gesture in 2009 was missed by most everybody.

“I don’t recall a lot of stories at the time saying that Benedict’s visit in 2009 made us think he was going to resign,” he mentioned, suggesting that Francis’ pastoral go to to l’Aquila could be simply that: a pastoral go to.

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