Pope Francis hints at eventual retirement plans

Tuesday, June 17th, 2014

Pope Francis has hinted that if he eventually retires from the papacy, he might return to live in his native Argentina.

In an interview with Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia last week, the Pope was asked if he still had a room reserved in a retirement home in Buenos Aires.

Pope Francis said “yes”, explaining that it is a “retirement house for elderly priests”.

He said that he had been making retirement plans before the 2013 conclave.

“I was leaving the archdiocese . . . and had already submitted my resignation to Benedict XVI when I turned 75,” the Pope said in the interview.

“I chose a room and said ‘I want to come to live here’. I will work as a priest, helping the parishes. This is what was going to be my future before being Pope.”

In the interview, Francis, 77, said Pope Benedict XVI had created an “institution” of emeritus popes.

“Well, as we live longer, we arrive to an age where we cannot go on with things,” Pope Francis continued.

“I will do the same as him, asking the Lord to enlighten me when the time comes and that he tell me what I have to do, and he will tell me for sure.”

This was the second time in two weeks that Francis had discussed the possibility of retirement

In the wide-ranging Spanish interview, Pope Francis also spoke of his anguish at images of malnourished children, when the world generates enough food to feed them.

He hit out at an economic system that rejects the young and discards the elderly, while making a god out of money.

Pope Francis also said opening Vatican archives from the Nazi era would reveal a great deal.

He defended wartime Pope Pius XII’s record in helping Jews.

“I don’t want to say that Pius XII did not make any mistakes – I myself make many – but one needs to see his role in the context of the time.”

Pope Francis expressed his annoyance at the focus on the role of Pius XII and the Church, when Allied powers did not bomb railway lines leading to death camps.

Sources