https://www.newsweek.com/pope-francis-issues-health-update-rules-out-stepping-down-2014599
Pope Francis Issues Health Update as He Rules Out Stepping Down
7 days ago, Jan 14, 2025 at 9:13 AM EST
Pope Francis has downplayed health issues and insisted he has no plans to resign.
"I am well," the 88-year-old says in his new memoir released on Tuesday Hope: The Autobiography, Reuters reported. "The reality is, quite simply, that I am old."
He adds that the church is "governed using the head and the heart, not the legs."
Why It Matters
Francis, the first pope from Latin America, has led the Catholic Church since 2013. Aged 88, he is now the oldest pope in more than a century and has battled a series of health issues in recent years.
In 2021, he had part of his large intestine removed. He was hospitalized twice in 2023, once due to a respiratory infection and the other time to undergo surgery to repair a hernia in his abdominal wall and remove scar tissue.
He often uses a wheelchair and last week asked an aide to read most of a speech because he was suffering from a cold.
What to Know
"Each time a pope takes ill, the winds of a conclave always feel as if they are blowing," Francis writes in his new memoir, referring to centuries-old tradition of cardinals gathering in the pope's official residence, the Sistine Chapel, after a pontiff's death to elect the next.
"The reality is that even during the days of surgery I never thought of resigning."
What's Next
Although Francis has said he has no plans to resign, there has been speculation about who could be chosen to be the next pontiff.
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The Catholic Church is not going to return. It is dead and Obamaista/Clintonista PODESTA is the one behind the takeover and the installation of Pope Francis.