He said he took seriously the promise he made with all Jesuits to not seek offices of authority and power in the church.

Francis met with Jesuits in Congo and in South Sudan during his visit to the two countries in late January-early February this year.

As he customarily does on his foreign visits, Pope Francis invited his brother Jesuits to ask him questions freely.

The pope was asked why he accepted becoming a bishop in Argentina when he had made the promise not to.

Pope Francis explained that he had refused when asked to become bishop of San Miguel and again when asked to become bishop of a diocese in the northern province of Corrientes.

"The papal nuncio, to encourage me to accept, told me that there were the ruins of the Jesuit past there," the pope told the Jesuits.

"I replied that I did not want to be the guardian of ruins, and I refused."

Nevertheless, in May 1992, he accepted his appointment as auxiliary bishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina, after the nuncio presented him with a letter from the Jesuit superior general saying he could accept.

When he accepted the appointment to Buenos Aires, he said, he did so "in a spirit of obedience".

Now that he is pope and makes those appointments, Francis said his preference is to choose someone who is not a Jesuit, but the greater good of the church always prevails.

Resignation letter

The pope also commented on a recent revelation that he had prepared a letter of resignation in case he became too ill or infirm to carry out the duties of the papacy.

Two months after his election, he wrote the letter and delivered it to Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, but he is unsure of the letter's current location.

However, Pope Francis said that resigning popes should not become a common occurrence, and he believes the pope's ministry is "ad vitam" (for life).

When asked if he was considering resignation, he replied, "No, it has not crossed my mind."

Sources

USCCB

La Croix International

Robert Mickens is the editor of the Roman Catholic newspaper La Croix International. He has lived, studied and worked in Rome for 30 years.

Mickens told inews he expects Pope Francis to pre-announce his resignation in October 2023, at the final synod gathering of bishops, with his term to end in 2025.

Mr Mickens said: "There are no rumours, but in my gut, I expect he will give his two years of notice at this event. He's preparing people for the possibility that he will resign, so it's not so shocking when it comes about."

Some religious commentators also believe that Pope Francis' decision to retire could set a "new norm", making him the third Pope to do so in history.

Pope Francis' predecessor, Benedict XVI, was the first pope to resign in more than 600 years when he stepped down in 2013, citing poor health.

Deacon and political commentator Calvin Robinson said: "It used to be that the Chair of St Peter meant service for life. The bishop of Rome, once elected, would occupy the role of obligation until such time as the Lord ended his tenure.

"It is a very contemporary idea to see this vocation as a job like any other, that one resigns from by choice. However, the precedent has been set. Benedict XVI was only the second Pope to retire, and if Francis wee to do the same, it might set a new norm."

On the subject of the Pope's health, sources told Mr Mickens that the 85-year-old Argentinian looked "really bad" on the flight home to Rome following his six-day tour of Canada.

Pope Francis remarked on his return from this trip, "the door is open" to stepping down if his health issues prevent him from completing his duties.

Francis said he currently intends to continue to serve, but when he does step down - if at all - the decision will be guided by God.

The pontiff also commented about a trip to Kazakstan planned for September, saying, "That wouldn't be too rigorous a journey."

Mr Mickens said he believes the Pope's wheelchair will become a permanent fixture, making working life more difficult.

"It's obvious he's got to cut things back, and the wheelchair is going to be a permanent fixture. With his age and weight, it will be difficult for him to gain mobility.

"I don't think there's any kind of surgery that can address the situation.

"We don't even know the impact of the surgery on his colon last summer, and he could have something else wrong that we don't know about."

Source

• iNews

Francis announced he would visit the central Italian city of L'Aquila in August. He will attend a feast initiated by Pope Celestine V, one of the few pontiffs who resigned before Pope Benedict XVI stepped down in 2013.

Italian and Catholic media have been rife with unsourced speculation that the 85-year-old Francis might be planning to follow in Benedict's footsteps. His increased mobility problems have forced him to use a wheelchair for the last month, which has driven conjecture about his future.

Francis was elected pope in 2013 on a mandate to reform the Roman Curia. Now that the nine-year project has been rolled out and at least partially implemented, Francis' main task as pope has in some ways been accomplished.

All of which made Saturday's otherwise routine announcement of a pastoral visit to L'Aquila carry more speculative weight than it might otherwise have.

The basilica in L'Aquila hosts the tomb of Celestine V, a hermit pope. He resigned after five months in 1294, overwhelmed by the job. In 2009, Benedict visited L'Aquila which had been devastated by a recent earthquake. He prayed at Celestine's tomb, leaving his pallium stole on it.

No one at the time appreciated the significance of the gesture. But four years later, the 85-year-old Benedict would follow in Celestine's footsteps and resign, saying he no longer had the strength of body and mind to carry on the rigours of the papacy.

Francis has praised Benedict's decision to retire as "opening the door" for future popes to do the same. He had initially predicted a short papacy for himself of two to five years.

Nine years later, Francis has shown no signs he wants to step down, and he has significant projects still on the horizon.

For example, he has scheduled a major meeting of the world's bishops in 2023 to debate the increasing decentralisation of the Catholic Church and the continued implementation of his reforms.

But Francis has been hobbled by the strained ligaments in his right knee, making walking painful and difficult. He has rejected surgery reportedly because of his reaction to anaesthesia during an operation last July.

However one of his closest advisers and friends, Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, said talk of a papal resignation or the end of Francis' pontificate was unfounded.

"I think these are optical illusions, cerebral illusions," Maradiaga told Religion Digital, a Spanish-language Catholic site.

Christopher Bellitto, a church historian at Kean University in Union, New Jersey, noted that most Vatican watchers expect Francis will eventually resign, but not before Benedict dies. The 95-year-old retired pope is physically frail but still alert and receives occasional visitors in his home in the Vatican gardens.

"He's not going to have two former popes floating around," Bellitto said in an email, seemingly quashing Pope Francis retirement rumours.

Sources

AP News

NPR