Pope Francis: My resignation is a ‘distant hypothesis’

He pope Francis rules out a possible resignation which he describes as “far hypothesis” that it will only come about because of a “serious physical disability”, although he says that some in the Vatican when he was in the hospital were “more interested in politics, in running an election campaign, they were almost thinking about a new conclave”.

“It is true that the Vatican is the last absolute monarchy in Europe and that court reasoning and maneuvering often take place here, but these patterns must definitely be abandoned,” he points out in “Life. My story through history”, an autobiography that will be published next week. but which will be published by the “Corriere della sera” this Thursday.

The Italian newspaper publishes excerpts from the book that the 88-year-old Pope wrote with the Vatican and his personal friend Fabio Marchese, in which he looks back on his life, from childhood to the present day, and comments on great historical moments, from the nuclear bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki or the military coup in Argentina until the pandemic.

“I consider that Petrin’s ministry is ad vitam and therefore I do not see the conditions for resignation. Things would have changed if there had been a serious physical disability, and in that case I have already signed a letter of resignation which was filed at the beginning of the pontificate in the State Secretariat. that happened, I would not be called Pope Emeritus, but simply Bishop Emeritus of Rome, and I would move to Santa Maria Maggiore to become a confessor again,” he says.

“But that’s a far-fetched hypothesis, because I really don’t have that many serious reasons to think about resigning. Someone may have hoped over the years that sooner or later, maybe after hospitalization, I would announce it, but there is no such risk: thank God, I’m in good health.” , he adds.

About the attacks he received, he says that it hurts him to “destroy the papacy”: Conclave 2013 “There was a great desire to change things, to abandon some attitudes that, unfortunately, are still difficult to disappear today. There are always those who try to stop reforms, those who would like to remain immobile during the time of the pope-king,” he says.

Francisco talks about his grandparents and how Piedmontese, a northern Italian dialect, was his “first mother tongue”, about how his family escaped a shipwreck in which 300 migrants died at the beginning of the 20th century, or about Italian films and songs. who always followed him.

He also gives his opinion on topics such as abortion, surrogacy or the reception of homosexuals in the Church, while reflecting on his relationship with his predecessor, Benedict XVI and talks about Diego Maradona, Leo Messi and his passion for football.

But about the military coup in Argentina, when he hid three seminarians, who helped him “to meet other young people in danger like them, at least twenty in two years” and his role in the release of two Jesuits who were expelled by the company and kidnapped by the regime.

“It was a generational genocide,” says the Pope, who adds: “The accusations against me lasted until recently. It was the revenge of some who knew how much I opposed those crimes.”