Pope’s visit fuels speculation about Francis’ future

Francisco fueled rumors about the future of his papacy by announcing that he would visit the central Italian city of L’Aquila in August for a festival created by Pope Celestine V, one of the few pontiffs to resign before Benedict XVI He left office in 2013.

Italian and Catholic media speculated without citing sources about the possibility that Francis, 85 years oldmay have plans to follow in Benedict’s footsteps because of his increasing mobility problemswhich forced him to use a wheelchair for the past month.

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Those rumors gained traction last week when Francis announced a consistory to create 21 new cardinals, scheduled for August 27. Sixteen of those cardinals are under 80 and could vote in a conclave to choose Francis’ successor.

Once these new cardinals join the ranks of Church leaders, Francis will have added 83 of the 132 cardinals of voting age. Although there are no guarantees on what they might vote for, the percentage increases the chance that a successor will be chosen who shares Francis’s pastoral priorities.

When announcing the August 27 consistory, Francis also announced that he would hold two days of meetings a week later to brief the cardinals on his recent apostolic constitution to reform the Vatican bureaucracy.

That document, which entered into force this Sunday, it allows putting women in charge of Vatican offices, imposes term limits on priests who are Vatican employees and places the Holy See as an institution at the service of local churches, and not the other way around.

Francis was elected pope in 2013 with a mandate of reform the roman curia. Now that the nine-year project has been presented and implemented at least in part, In a way, Francis’ main task as pope has been completed.

All of this meant that Saturday’s otherwise routine announcement of a pastoral visit to L’Aquila fueled more speculation than under other circumstances.

The date was conspicuous: The Vatican and the rest of Italy are typically on vacation in August and into mid-September, and few non-essential businesses remain open. Calling a consistory in mid-August to create new cardinals, gathering religious for two days to discuss the application of the reform and making a symbolic pastoral visit indicate that Francis could have in mind something more than the daily activity of his position. .

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…https://t.co/E0ivKdwH2J

— Robert Mickens (@robinrome) June 4, 2022

“With today’s news that (the Pope) will go to L’Aquila in the middle of the August consistory, everything became even more intriguing”tweeted Vatican expert Robert Mickens, linking to an essay published in La Croix International on rumors surrounding the future of the papacy.

The basilica in L’Aquila houses the tomb of Celestine V, a hermit pope who resigned after five months of papacy in 1294, overwhelmed by the task. Benedict visited L’Aquila in 2009, after it was devastated by an earthquake, and prayed at Celestino’s tomb, where he left his stole.

No one appreciated the importance of the gesture at the time. But four years later, Benedicto, 85, followed in Celestino’s footsteps and resignednoting that he no longer had the strength of body and mind to shoulder the tasks of the papacy.

Pope Francis, right, receives Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI before the start of a meeting with elderly faithful in St. Peter’s Square, Vatican. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, File/)

The Vatican announced last Saturday that Francis would visit L’Aquila to celebrate Mass on August 28 and open the “Holy Door” in the basilica where Celestino is buried. The dates coincide with the celebration of the Feast of Forgiveness in the temple, created by Celestino in a papal bull.

No pope has traveled to L’Aquila since then to close the annual partywhich celebrates the sacrament of forgiveness that Francis values ​​so much, said the current archbishop of L’Aquila, Cardinal Giuseppe Petrocchi.

“We trust that everyone, especially those hurt by conflicts and internal divisions, can (come) and find the path of peace and solidarity,” he said in a statement announcing the visit.

Francis at the time praised his predecessor Benedict’s decision to withdraw, saying it “opens the door” for future popes to do the same.. He originally predicted that his papacy would be short, two or five years.

Nine years later, Francisco has not given any sign that he wants to resign, and he still has important projects underway.

upcoming trips

In addition to his upcoming trips this year to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan, Canada and Kazakhstan, he has scheduled a major meeting of bishops from around the world in 2023 to discuss the increasing decentralization of the Catholic Church, as well as the application of his reforms.

But Francis has been impeded by a right knee ligament strain that makes walking painful and difficult. He told various friends that he does not want to have surgery because of the reaction he had to anesthesia last July, when 33 centimeters of his large intestine were removed.

This week, one of his closest friends and advisers, Honduran Cardinal Óscar Rodríguez Maradiaga, said talk of a papal resignation or the end of Francis’ papacy was unfounded, describing them as “optical illusions” in remarks to Religion. Digital, a Catholic website in Spanish.

Christopher Bellitto, a church historian at Kean University in Union, New Jersey, noted that most Vatican experts expect Francis to resign at some point, but not before Benedict dies. The 95-year-old pope emeritus is in delicate physical shape but is still conscious and receives occasional visitors at his home in the Vatican gardens.

“You’re not going to have two popes emeritus hanging around,” Bellitto said in an email. Referring to Francis’ planned visit to L’Aquila, he suggested not drawing too many conclusions, noting that almost everyone missed Benedict’s gesture in 2009.

“I don’t remember much news then saying that Benedict’s visit in 2009 had made us think he was going to resign,” he said, suggesting that Francis’ pastoral visit to L’Aquila could be just that: a pastoral visit.

Source: Elcomercio