The health episode that the Pope experienced this Wednesday apparently does not compromise his life.
He will only turn 87 on December 17, but until now his ability to exercise the pontificate, which is what is at stake, allowed him to assure that he was not even thinking about his resignation, despite the fact that he evoked the perspective in several interviews. .
His predecessor Joseph Ratzinger, Benedict XVI, was a conservative who revolutionized the Church, forcing it to modernize on the issue of the papacy, when he resigned in February 2012. This had not happened for many centuries.
Ratzinger, a great theologian, died on the last day of 2022.
On March 13, ten years after his election, the pontificate of Jorge Bergoglio entered its final phase without the conditions of a Pope Emeritus who accompanied him for a decade.
On so many occasions Francisco stressed that he had never thought of resigning but he ventured into the subject.
He even said that if he did, he would be an Emeritus Bishop of Rome (enough with the Emeritus thing that there is only one Pope), that perhaps he would choose to live in a boarding school for priests or in some local Roman Vicariate, that he would go to a neighboring parish to follow the faithful.
But he warned that a pope's resignation "should not become a fad," though he did say that "I could step aside."
Police guard the Gemelli hospital in Rome, where Pope Francis was admitted this Wednesday.
Photo: EFE
Last April-May, the worsening of his osteoarthritis in his right knee forced him to use a wheelchair and to walk little and supported by a cane.
Regarding the knee problem, it is visible that the therapy based on massages, infiltrations and other medical actions has given good results.
Francisco walks more with the cane and is on his feet longer.
But it suffers from limitations.
He presides over the liturgical acts but without fullness.
People have also gotten used to overcoming the problems that knee osteoarthritis poses to the pontiff.
alarm and questions
The shock that the Catholic world experienced this Wednesday raises some inevitable questions.
Discounting the fact that Jorge Bergoglio will overcome the lung infection, however, an unknown remains floating: how much are the times of the papacy shortening?
The Church is a monarchy of divine right and absolutist structure.
Everything passes through the Pope.
The overwhelming volume of work to which the pontiff is forced is impressive.
In this 2023 of his tenth anniversary at the head of the immense structure that supports 1.3 billion baptized, Francis has given an impression of rejuvenation.
He works like never before and works too much,
but he has no other choice.
The so-called Immobile Church does not change in its style of power and accepting the challenge implies
an undeniable physical wear and tear
.
The Pope greeted the faithful this Wednesday in the Vatican, despite the discomfort for which he was later admitted.
Photo: AP
Holy Week begins on Sunday and it is likely that the Pope will not be able to be present at least in part of the ceremonies.
Within a month,
a trip by Francis to Hungary is planned
.
In October the Synod of Synods begins, which will bring together the first phase of the world assembly of bishops dedicated to the great problems and challenges of the Church.
And this fundamental “momentum” that the Argentine Pope has intensely wanted will continue throughout 2024, when the final phase of the first Synod of Synods will take place.
And preparations have already begun for
the Jubilee Year of 2025, which will once again gather crowds in Rome.
Clash between factions
Jorge Bergoglio's pontificate is projected into the future because his reform initiatives necessarily extend beyond his papacy.
Hence the need to ensure continuity at a time when confrontations with conservatives and traditionalists are growing in the Church, who are fighting to stop the process that Francis is carrying out.
It is inevitable that the rudder remains in the hands of the
era of changes
launched by Bergoglio, who until now has not made any doctrinal modifications but who is trying to impose a general renovation.
Guiding the future is essential.
One of the keys to Francisco's action is to change the structures in the Conclave of cardinals that must choose his successor.
Pope Francis was taken by ambulance with a lung infection.
Photo: AP
With patience and firmness, it has modified the panorama favoring the geographical and existential peripheries.
Today 64% of the cardinal electors (under 80 years of age) have been created by Francis.
The battle in the Conclave is presented as essential to
ensure the future of the reforms
and make them a reality.
From the renewed Conclave will emerge the successor who must come out of the reformist ranks.
The first papable exists and is consolidated.
Bergoglio created Matteo Zuppi a cardinal, after consecrating him Archbishop of Bologna.
Roman, one of the characters of the Community of Sant'Egidio, currently the most powerful internal movement of the laity, Zuppi is a true Bergoglian because since he was a young priest in the central parish of the Community, he defended the same ideas of renewal of the Church.
The final accolade to Matteo Zuppi's rise was Bergoglio's decision to promote him to president of the Italian Bishops' Conference.
From this stage his dimension has grown in a short time.
Zuppi has a convincing, edge-free style.
He maintains an important dialogue with conservative characters and movements.
He is a professed admirer of Joseph Ratzinger, Benedict XVI, the resigning pope.
In a difficult situation of the internal struggles of the Church, Cardinal Zuppi is a figure who knows how to build bridges of dialogue.
Preparing the ground for this
historic change in the Church
includes choosing the opportune moment to retire and ensuring that the future becomes present with the new Pope.
Matteo Zuppi would assure the Church, tormented by doctrinal clashes and of all kinds, that the reforms will come about without excessive trauma.
The architect of this present reality of a future that is arriving is Jorge Bergoglio.
To ensure his succession, a timely retirement would guarantee the best conditions to control his succession, which already has a name.
Vatican correspondent
BC
look also
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