Despite advanced age and questionable health, Pope Francis keeps up a busy schedule of activities that looks to get even busier.
The past several weeks surely have been extremely frustrating for Pope Francis.
First of all, his tireless and ever more urgent appeals for an end to the fighting in Ukraine, which began in late February with Russia’s invasion of the country, have been completely ignored.
And he’s had absolutely no success in convincing Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, to denounce the war or convince Vladimir Putin to agree to an Easter ceasefire.
Francis keeps repeating that he’s willing to do everything he can to help stop the war, but he has to know in his heart of hearts that (as it’s been said here before) there is no role for the Roman pope in the Russia-Ukraine mess.
That must also be extremely frustrating for him.
But whether the war ends tomorrow or drags on for a very long time, there is another issue that is bogging him down. It’s his advanced age and questionable health.
Cancelled appointments and scaled-back ceremonies
The head of the Holy See Press Office on Friday told journalists that Francis had cancelled all his pre-scheduled appointments for the day in order to have some necessary medical check-ups.
The press officer did not give any details, but in an interview with an Argentine newspaper that was published on the same day, the 85-year-old Jesuit pope revealed that the nagging problem he’s been having with his right knee is a torn ligament.
The knee ailment has hobbled him for several weeks and it even forced him to skip or scale down processions and certain other physical activities during the liturgies of Holy Week.
Most notably, Francis did not even preside at the Easter Vigil, but sat among the assembly. The next day he was able to lead the Mass in St. Peter’s Square but had to sit for most of the “Urbi et Orbi” Message that he delivered afterwards.
And a few weeks earlier, during an April 2-3 trip to Malta, the pope had to use hydraulic lifts to board his flights and even to visit a below-ground shrine.
Extra weight and major surgery
The bum knee is not the only health issue that is dogging him. Francis also has said that he suffers from sciatic nerve pain, and it is obvious to all that he’s a lot heavier than he was nine years ago when he was elected Bishop of Rome.
In addition to all that, he underwent a major operation last July when surgeons removed about one-fifth (13 inches) of his large intestine. He remained hospitalized for ten days but was quick to resume normal activities without further convalescence.
The exact state of the pope’s health is not clear because Francis doesn’t like to reveal any more than required. He was extremely secret last July, for example, over releasing details about his surgery.
But he impressively soldiers on under obvious physical limitations, giving little indication of the aches and pains he feels.
Doing more and keeping people off balance
This pope clearly likes to keep people guessing — and off balance –, which appears to be part of his way of governing and surviving as a total outsider in ecclesiastical Rome and the Vatican.
For instance, after last July’s surgery there were rumors floating around that Francis had cancer and some surmised that they did not originate with the pope’s “enemies”, but with the pope himself!
And his response was to give more live and recorded addresses, meet more people, hold more audiences and get back to traveling.
He’s made three international trips since the surgery (Hungary-Slovakia, Iraq and Malta) and has four more on his calendar for the coming months — Lebanon in mid-June, South Sudan and DR-Congo in early July, Canada a few weeks later, and Kazakhstan in September.
Is this just another way to show that he is healthy or is the sign of someone who is in a race against the clock?
If it is the latter, then expect Francis to do a lot more than just hopscotch around the globe.
Major appointments to be made
One of the most urgent matters of business is revamping the top leadership in the Roman Curia in order to ensure the reform that goes into effect on Pentecost Sunday (June 5) is carefully and enthusiastically implemented.
The pope will also be creating new cardinals soon. There are currently 117 electors, but that number falls to 110 by the end of the year. If he sticks to the 120-limit set by Paul VI, he will have ten slots to fill.
But popes are free to change the number of electors if they choose and they can also modify the rules and protocols in place during the sede vacante (interregnum between one pontificate an another) and the conclave.
Just about every pope who has lived more than 33 days has done so and it is expected that Francis will also. There is an urgent need to precisely define the process by which a Roman Pontiff freely resigns and codify the rights and duties of a former pope.
Bound and determined
Finally, keep an eye out for further changes to the Synod of Bishops, possibly to give it a more deliberative role in universal Church governance or even transform it into a body that is not just for the hierarchy and the ordained.
Francis has launched an audacious experiment called “synodality” in an effort to truly awaken all the baptized (i.e. the so-called laity) and make them active participants in how the Church operates.
The Synod itself will likely have to be further modified to enhance and facilitate this development.
The pope is getting old and his health is naturally declining. But he is trying mightily not to show signs of slowing down.
Though the clock is ticking, Francis is convinced there is still a lot more do. And he seems bound and determined to get it done.
- Robert Mickens is La-Croix International Editor in Chief. He has lived, studied and worked in Rome for 30 years. Over that time he has studied at the Gregorian University, worked at Vatican Radio and been the Rome correspondent for the London Tablet. He regularly comments on CNN, the BBC and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
- First published in La-Croix International. Republished with permission.