Does this news prove Pope Francis is going to resign?

Rumor has it Pope Francis will soon go through a resignation, but is it true? Don’t let the tender face and the white angelical outfit fool you, being Pope is a political charge more than a spiritual one and that means a substantial job. Being the international face of all catholic church statements at age eighty-five sounds like a hard duty, is this the reason behind the resignation rumors?

Pope Francis began his duty as Head of State of the Vatican in 2013 with the resignation of Benedict XVI. Still, is there any public figure more controversial than the pope? The pope is the highest authority, either on the most retrograde institution aka Roman Catholic Church, or the noblest moral foundation. This perception depends on your political & spiritual orientation. 

Yet it seemed that Pope Francis would change this binary acceptance-rejection for a while since several non-Catholics liked him. His acceptance of the LGBT+ community & humble character toward the poor stole the heart of many. Yet in the last months, Pope Francis has lost the acceptance he had in liberal groups with his points on abortion by comparing it with homicide. Still, is Pope Francis going to resign?

Resignation rumors

Pope Francis recently told Reuters that all the rumors that say he’s planning on resigning from the papacy are incorrect. As a matter of fact, Pope Francis mentioned these ideas have never entered his mind. But why did these rumors begin? It all started with health issues that prevented him from participating in various activities and also because he used a wheelchair.

Anyway, health issues are nothing new when you’re close to reaching age ninety, there have to be other factors behind all these conspiracies right? Well, yes. The Church leader set a meeting with the world’s cardinals in August, which made people think the intention behind it would be to resign. Yet, the pope explained that this meeting intends to define the new Vatican constitution and include new cardinals. 

This event was in fact planned for several months and will take place in the Italian city of L’Aquila. Yet, this led to a conspiracy again since this city has historically been visited by several popes before resigning. L’Aquila was the place chosen by Pope Celestine V, to leave the papacy in 1294, later, in 2013, Pope Benedict XVI visited and resigned four years later.

The pope has shared his intentions to mediate in the war between Russia & Ukraine. The church leader is interested in visiting Moscow and exchanging messages with the Russian president to provide peace in this situation. His travel intentions confirm the pope is not interested in soon leaving his charge, but should he? 

Is Pope Francis ready for resignation?

Although the pope has mentioned in several moments that resignation hasn’t even gone through his head, sometimes life chooses for us. The Catholic leader opened up about his health problems denying the rumor of suffering from cancer. Nevertheless, the pope does suffer from a discomfort condition, which apparently accompanies severe knee pain and is the reason behind his wheelchair. 

Early this morning the pope was asked if he had a resignation date in mind, as he denied it happening soon. To this, the pope mentioned the time hasn’t come yet, but that when it does, he’ll be happy to end this stage as Benedict XVI did nine years ago. With a positive attitude, the Vatican head of state said that things eventually get better as he’s fully recovered from his diverticulitis surgery that happened a year ago. 

After all, it looks that despite the health rumors and the real issues he has gone through, he’s in good condition to extend his job, and his resignation is still far.