Francis on his future

Francis gave a major interview to the Associated Press. This is the part that deals with his future.

Pope Francis on his health, critics and future papacy

My Comments in Italics

“I’m in good health. For my age, I’m normal,” the 86-year-old pontiff said Tuesday, though he revealed that diverticulosis, or bulges in his intestinal wall, had “returned.” 

“I might die tomorrow, but it’s under control. I’m in good health,” he told The Associated Press with his typical wry sense of humor.

Unless he becomes mentally incapacitated, Francis has no intention of retiring. He has JP2, now a saint, as an example. Already a key Austrian Cardinal, a student of Benedict who had urged Benedict to accept the Papacy if elected, has urged Francis not to resign unless necessary. 

Francis acknowledged the knives were out but seemed almost sanguine about it.

“I wouldn’t relate it to Benedict, but because of the wear-and-tear of a government of 10 years,” Francis said of his papacy. At first, his election was greeted with a sense of “surprise” about a South American pope, then came discomfort “when they started to see my flaws and didn’t like them,” he said.

“The only thing I ask is that they do it to my face because that’s how we all grow, right?” he added.

Forget about all the intrigue. Don't hide behind Benedict. Let's go at it face to face.  I make mistakes. I would have done a lot of things differently. I may change my mind; I've done that before.

Francis praised Benedict as a “gentleman,” and said of his death: “I lost a dad.”

“For me, he was a security. In the face of a doubt, I would ask for the car and go to the monastery and ask,” he said of his visits to Benedict’s retirement home for counsel. “I lost a good companion.”

Hmm. While Benedict's secretary was gate keeper for everyone else, maybe he wasn't the gate keeper for Francis. When Francis fired him as his assistant maybe it was so that Francis could be free to visit Benedict any time he wanted. 

Norms for retired Popes?

Francis said issuing such norms hadn’t even occurred to him.

“I’m telling you the truth,” he said, adding that the Vatican needed more experience with papal retirements before setting out to “regularize or regulate” them.

Francis has said Benedict “opened the door” to future resignations, and that he too would consider stepping down. He repeated Tuesday that if he were to resign he’d be called the bishop emeritus of Rome and would live in the residence for retired priests in the diocese of Rome.

Francis said Benedict’s decision to live in a converted monastery in the Vatican Gardens was a “good intermediate solution,” but that future retired popes might want to do things differently.

“He was still ‘enslaved’ as a pope, no?” Francis said. “Of the vision of a pope, of a system. ‘Slave’ in the good sense of the word: In that he wasn’t completely free, as he would have liked to have returned to his Germany and continued studying theology.”

So Francis is going to retire on his own terms, just as Benedict did, and leave it up to his successor to dare to do anything about it.

As for his own near-term future, Francis emphasized his role as “bishop of Rome” as opposed to pontiff and said of his plans: “Continue being bishop, bishop of Rome in communion with all the bishops of the world.” He said he wanted to put to rest the concept of the papacy as a power player or papal “court.”

I have long suspected this would be his plan to deal with limited mobility. 

Before he was elected he said that he liked to stay home and not travel. Then he decided to give JP2 a run for the travel record by going to all sorts of places that JP2 had not gone and ignoring a lot of the big stops. Francis really would prefer it if bishops around the world picked up some of the heavy lifting of changing politics in their regions. Let the Vatican diplomats be seen as neutral players on the world scene. Francis can do everything he needs to do with regard to synods of bishops by staying home.  

However, he wants to become a model Vatican II bishop in his own diocese. 

Francis also addressed the criticism from cardinals and bishops that burst into public in the weeks since Benedict’s death, saying it’s unpleasant — “like a rash that bothers you a bit” — but that is better than keeping it under wraps.

“You prefer that they don’t criticize, for the sake of tranquility,” Francis said. “But I prefer that they do it because that means there’s freedom to speak.”

“If it’s not like this, there would be a dictatorship of distance, as I call it, where the emperor is there and no one can tell him anything. No, let them speak because ... criticism helps you to grow and improve things.”

Francis acknowledged Pell’s criticism but still sang his praises for having been his “right-hand man” on reforming the Vatican’s finances as his first economy minister.

“Even though they say he criticized me, fine, he has the right. Criticism is a human right,” Francis said. But he added: “He was a great guy. Great.”

Again, the way Francis speaks raises a lot of questions about Pell. He certainly had almost more access to Francis than anyone but the Vatican Secretary of State. Did he challenge Francis in the Council of Nine Cardinals that advised Francis?  Privately to the Pope in their many meetings?  Sounds like he was just a great guy with the Pope! What explains his change of heart?