Pope Francis has dismissed reports that he plans to step down in the near future, saying he is on track to visit Canada this month and hopes to be able to travel to Moscow and Kyiv as soon as possible after that. In an exclusive interview at his Vatican residence, Francis also dismissed rumors that he had cancer, joking that his doctors “didn’t tell me anything about it” and for the first time detailed the knee condition that prevented him from some duties. In a 90-minute conversation on Saturday afternoon, conducted in Italian with no aides present, the 85-year-old pontiff also reiterated his condemnation of abortion following last month’s US Supreme Court ruling. Rumors have circulated in the media that a combination of events in late August, including meetings with the world’s cardinals to discuss a new Vatican constitution, an induction ceremony for new cardinals and a visit to the Italian city of L’Aquila, may herald a resignation announcement. L’Aquila is associated with Pope Celestine V, who resigned the papacy in 1294. Pope Benedict XVI visited the city four years before he resigned in 2013, the first pope to do so in nearly 600 years. But Francis, alert and at ease throughout the interview as he discussed a wide range of international and church issues, dismissed the laughter. “All these coincidences led some to believe that the same ‘function’ would take place,” he said. “But it never entered my mind. At present no, for the moment, no. Indeed!” Francis, however, reiterated his oft-stated position that he may step down one day if ill health makes it impossible for him to lead the Church – something that was almost unthinkable before Benedict XVI. Asked when he thought it might be, he said: “We don’t know. God will say.”
KNEE INJURY
The interview took place on the day he was due to leave for the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan, a trip he was forced to cancel because doctors said he may also miss a trip to Canada from July 24 to 30 unless he he agreed to do 20 more days of treatment and rest for his right knee. He said the decision to cancel the trip to Africa had caused him “a lot of suffering”, particularly as he wanted to promote peace in both countries. Francis used a cane as he entered a reception room on the ground floor of the Santa Marta guesthouse where he has lived since his election in 2013, avoiding the papal apartment in the Apostolic Palace used by his predecessors. The room has a copy of one of Francis’ favorite paintings: “Mary, Untier of Knots,” created around 1700 by the German Joachim Schmidtner. Asked how he was doing, the Pope joked: “I’m still alive!” He gave details of his condition publicly for the first time, saying he had suffered “a small fracture” in his knee when he took a wrong step while a ligament was inflamed. “I’m fine, I’m slowly getting better,” he said, adding that the fracture was mended, helped by laser and magnetic therapy. Francis also dismissed rumors that cancer had been found a year ago when he underwent a six-hour operation to remove part of his colon due to diverticulitis, a condition common in the elderly. “It (the operation) was a great success,” he said, adding with a laugh that “they didn’t tell me anything” about the alleged cancer, which he dismissed as “court gossip.” But he said he didn’t want an operation on his knee because the general anesthetic in last year’s surgery had negative side effects.
POPE TRIP TO MOSCOW?
Speaking about the situation in Ukraine, Francis noted that there had been contacts between Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov about a possible trip to Moscow. The initial signs were not good. No pope has ever visited Moscow, and Francis has repeatedly condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. last Thursday he implicitly accused her of waging a “cruel and senseless war of aggression”. When the Vatican first asked about a trip several months ago, Francis said Moscow responded that the time was not right. But he hinted that something may now have changed. “I would like to go (to Ukraine) and I wanted to go to Moscow first. We exchanged messages about it because I thought that if the Russian president would give me a small window to serve the cause of peace … “And now it is possible, after I come back from Canada, it is possible that I will be able to go to Ukraine,” he said. “The first thing is to go to Russia to try to help in some way, but I would like to go to both capitals.”
EXCLUSIVE DECISION
Asked about the US Supreme Court ruling overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that established a woman’s right to an abortion, Francis said he respected the decision but didn’t have enough information to speak about it from a legal perspective . But he strongly condemned abortion, comparing it to “hiring a murderer”. The Catholic Church teaches that life begins at conception. “I ask: Is it legitimate, is it right, to eliminate a human life to solve a problem?” Francis was asked about a debate in the United States about whether a Catholic politician who personally opposes abortion but supports the right of others to choose should receive communion. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, for example, has been banned by the conservative archbishop of her diocese in San Francisco from receiving it there, but regularly receives communion at a parish in Washington, D.C. Last week, she received the sacrament at a papal Mass in the Vatican. “When the Church loses its pastoral nature, when a bishop loses his pastoral nature, it causes a political problem,” the Pope said. “That’s all I can say.” (Reporting by Philip Pullella Editing by Kevin Liffey)
