Pope Francis said today (Saturday) that his advanced age and his difficulty walking led him to realize that he would be ready to resign if his health deteriorated drastically.
"I don't think I can continue my travels at the same pace as before," he said in response to journalists' questions on board the plane that returned him to Rome from a week-long tour of Canada.
In recent months, Franciscus, 85, has been using a wheelchair, cane or walker because of knee pain caused by a fracture and an inflamed ligament.
He sat in a wheelchair for the traditional press conference, which lasted 45 minutes after the tour, for the first time in his 37 international trips since he was elected pope in 2013.
"I think at my age and with this limitation I need to keep myself a little bit to be able to serve the Church, or decide to step aside," Francis said.
According to him, he prefers not to undergo knee surgery, because he did not want to repeat the negative long-term side effects from the anesthesia, which he suffered after intestinal surgery about a year ago.
However, the Pope said that he is preparing to carry out the tours he has committed to: in South Sudan, Congo, Lebanon, and perhaps also in Kazakhstan before deciding on additional tours.
"I have all the good will, but we will have to see what the habit says," he said.
Regarding the possibility that he will step down from his position, although usually only death releases him from the high office, Francis said: "The door is open. This is one of the possibilities. Until today I have not used this door, I did not think that I should think about this possibility. But that does not mean that the day after tomorrow I will not do it. This tour was a bit of a test. It's true that I can't do trips in this situation. Maybe the style should change, do less trips, do the trips I promised to do, redo things. But it will be God who decides."
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