VATICAN CITY, July 4 (Reuters) – Pope Francis has dismissed reviews that he plans to resign within the close to future, saying he is on monitor to go to Canada this month and hopes to have the opportunity to go to Moscow and Kyiv as soon as attainable after that.
In an unique interview in his Vatican residence, Francis additionally denied rumours that he had most cancers, joking that his medical doctors “didn’t tell me anything about it”, and for the primary time gave particulars of the knee situation that has prevented him finishing up some duties.
In a 90-minute dialog on Saturday afternoon, carried out in Italian, with no aides current, the 85-year-old pontiff additionally repeated his condemnation of abortion following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling final month.
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Rumours have swirled within the media {that a} conjunction of occasions in late August, together with conferences with the world’s cardinals to talk about a brand new Vatican structure, a ceremony to induct new cardinals, and a go to to the Italian metropolis of L’Aquila, might foreshadow a resignation announcement.
L’Aquila is related to Pope Celestine V, who resigned the papacy in 1294. Pope Benedict XVI visited town 4 years earlier than he resigned in 2013, the primary pope to accomplish that in about 600 years.
But Francis, alert and comfortable all through the interview as he mentioned a variety of worldwide and Church points, laughed the thought off.
“All of these coincidences made some think that the same ‘liturgy’ would happen,” he stated. “But it never entered my mind. For the moment no, for the moment, no. Really!”
Francis did, nonetheless, repeat his typically said place that he would possibly resign sometime if failing well being made it unattainable for him to run the Church – one thing that had been virtually unthinkable earlier than Benedict XVI.
Asked when he thought that is perhaps, he stated: “We don’t know. God will say.”
KNEE INJURY
The interview happened on the day he was to have left for Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan, a visit he had to cancel as a result of medical doctors stated he may also have to miss a visit to Canada from July 24-30 except he agreed to have 20 extra days of remedy and relaxation for his proper knee. learn extra
He stated the choice to cancel the Africa journey had prompted him “much suffering”, notably as a result of he needed to promote peace in each nations. learn extra
Francis used a cane as he walked right into a reception room on the bottom flooring of the Santa Marta visitor home the place he has lived since his election in 2013, eschewing the papal house within the Apostolic Palace utilized by his predecessors.
The room has a replica of considered one of Francis’ favorite work: “Mary, Untier of Knots”, created round 1700 by the German Joachim Schmidtner.
Asked how he was, the pope joked: “I’m still alive!”
He gave particulars of his ailment for the primary time in public, saying he had suffered “a small fracture” within the knee when he took a misstep whereas a ligament was infected.
“I am well, I am slowly getting better,” he stated, including that the fracture was knitting, helped by laser and magnet remedy.
Pope Francis speaks throughout an unique interview with Reuters, on the Vatican, July 2, 2022. REUTERS/Remo Casilli
Francis additionally dismissed rumours {that a} most cancers had been discovered a 12 months in the past when he underwent a six-hour operation to take away a part of his colon due to diverticulitis, a situation frequent within the aged.
“It (the operation) was a great success,” he stated, including with fun that “they didn’t tell me anything” concerning the supposed most cancers, which he dismissed as “court gossip”.
But he stated he didn’t need an operation on his knee as a result of the overall anaesthetic in final 12 months’s surgical procedure had had damaging side-effects.
PAPAL TRIP TO MOSCOW?
Speaking of the scenario in Ukraine, Francis famous that there have been contacts between Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov a couple of attainable journey to Moscow.
The preliminary indicators weren’t good. No pope has ever visited Moscow, and Francis has repeatedly condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; final Thursday he implicitly accused it of waging a “cruel and senseless war of aggression”. learn extra
When the Vatican first requested a couple of journey a number of months in the past, Francis stated Moscow replied that it was not the correct time.
But he hinted that one thing might now have modified.
“I would like to go (to Ukraine), and I wanted to go to Moscow first. We exchanged messages about this because I thought that if the Russian president gave me a small window to serve the cause of peace …
“And now it is attainable, after I come again from Canada, it is attainable that I handle to go to Ukraine,” he said. “The very first thing is to go to Russia to strive to assist not directly, however I would love to go to each capitals.”
ABORTION RULING
Asked about the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling establishing a woman’s right to have an abortion, Francis said he respected the decision but did not have enough information to speak about it from a juridical point of view. read more
But he strongly condemned abortion, evaluating it to “hiring successful man”. The Catholic Church teaches that life begins in the meanwhile of conception.
“I ask: Is it professional, is it proper, to get rid of a human life to resolve an issue?”
Francis was asked about a debate in the United States over whether a Catholic politician who is personally opposed to abortion but supports others’ right to choose should be allowed to receive the sacrament of communion.
House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi, for example, has been barred by the conservative archbishop of her home diocese of San Francisco from receiving it there, but is regularly given communion at a parish in Washington, D.C. Last week, she received the sacrament at a papal Mass in the Vatican. read more
“When the Church loses its pastoral nature, when a bishop loses his pastoral nature, it causes a political downside,” the pope said. “That’s all I can say.”
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Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by Kevin Liffey
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