Pope Francis is helped by his aide, Monsignor Leonardo Sapienza, left, as he walks with a cane to his weekly general audience at St. Peter’s Basilica. Saint Peter’s Square in the Vatican, on June 1. Pope Francis has revealed in an interview published on Sunday that shortly after being elected pontiff in 2013 he wrote a letter of resignation in case medical problems prevented him from carrying out his functions. (Gregorio Borgia, Associated Press)
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ROME — Pope Francis revealed in an interview published Sunday that shortly after he was elected pontiff in 2013 he wrote a letter of resignation in case medical problems prevented him from fulfilling his duties.
Speaking to the Spanish newspaper ABC, Francis said he delivered the note to Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who was the Vatican’s secretary of state at the time. The pontiff added that he presumes that the prelate currently in that Vatican No. 2 role, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, now has the written instruction.
Francis, who turned 86 on Saturday, underwent surgery in 2021 to repair a narrowed intestine and has been plagued by knee pain that has forced him to use a wheelchair for months. Lately, he has increasingly used a cane instead of a wheelchair to get around in public.
Asked what happens if health problems or an accident suddenly leave a pope unable to do his job, and whether there should be a rule for such cases, Francis replied: “In practice, there is already a rule.”
“I have already signed my resignation,” Francis revealed, noting that he did so at the beginning of the papacy.
“I signed it and said, ‘If I were to become incapacitated for medical reasons or whatever, here’s my resignation. Here it is,'” he said, referring to Cardinal Bertone, who resigned as secretary of state in October 2013 in the early months of Francis’s papacy.
The pontiff joked that now that he has revealed the existence of his resignation note, “someone will run to Bertone (saying): ‘Give me that piece of paper.'”
Francis said he was sure Bertone would have passed the letter on to the current Secretary of State, Parolin.
In earlier comments, Francis has praised the decision of his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, to resign because he felt that due to advancing age he would not be better able to carry out his duties. Benedict, who lives in a monastery on Vatican grounds, was the first pontiff to resign in 600 years, and his resignation paved the way for Francis’ election as South America’s first pope.
Francis in the interview downplayed his mobility challenge, saying “you rule with your head, not your knee.”
Catholic church law requires that a papal resignation be “freely and properly manifested,” as happened when Benedict shocked the world by announcing his resignation before a gathering of prelates at the Vatican in February 2013.
