Advertisement

Roamin’ pontiff laments that age and pain are slowing his travels

Pope Francis, now 86 and increasingly frail, hopes his health improves enough to officiate at Holy Week services <i>Photo: AP</i>

Pope Francis, now 86 and increasingly frail, hopes his health improves enough to officiate at Holy Week services Photo: AP

Pope Francis says he is prepared to resign if serious health problems ever prohibit him from running the Church.

“I don’t think I can continue doing trips with the same rhythm as before,” the 85-year-old Pontiff said on Saturday while answering reporters’ questions aboard the plane returning to Rome from a week-long visit to Canada.

For the past few months Pope Francis, who admits he is entering a slower stage of his papacy, has been using a wheelchair, a cane or a walker because of knee pain caused by a fracture and inflamed ligament.

He hobbled with the aid of a cane to the rear cabin where reporters travel, but sat in a wheelchair for the traditional, 45-minute post-trip news conference, the first time he has done so on his 37 international trips since he was elected as pope in 2013.

“I think that at my age and with this limitation I have to preserve myself a bit in order to be able to serve the Church, or decide to step aside,” he said.

The pace of the trip to Canada, which centred on his apologies for the Church’s role in residential schools to assimilate indigenous children, was slower than in the past, with usually only two events a day and long patches of rest time.

Fearful of further surgery

The Pope said he preferred not to have an operation on his knee because he did not want a repeat of long-term negative side effects from anaesthesia he suffered after an intestinal operation a year ago.

“But I will try to continue to travel in order to be close to people because it is a way of serving,” he said.

He indicated he would first make trips to places he had already promised to visit, such as South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lebanon and perhaps Kazakhstan before deciding on future destinations.

“I have all the good will but we will have to see what the leg says,” he quipped.

In an interview with Reuters this month, Pope Francis said he had no intention of resigning soon.

He has said often he could follow in the footsteps of Pope Benedict, who in 2013 became the first pope in 600 years to resign instead of rule for life.

“This, with all honesty, is not a catastrophe. There can be a change of popes, there is no problem with that,” he said.

“The door is open. It is one of the normal options. Up until today, I did not use that door. I did not think it was necessary to think of this possibility but that does not mean that the day after tomorrow I don’t start thinking about it,” he said.

“This trip was a bit of a test. It is true that I can’t make trips in this condition. Maybe the style has to change, make fewer trips, make the trips I have promised to make, re-jig things. But it will be the Lord who decides. The door is open,” he said.

-AAP

Stay informed, daily
A FREE subscription to The New Daily arrives every morning and evening.
The New Daily is a trusted source of national news and information and is provided free for all Australians. Read our editorial charter
Copyright © 2024 The New Daily.
All rights reserved.