2023-09-04 18:08:38
Pope Francis, September 4, 2023, speaking to journalists on the plane taking him back from his trip to Mongolia. CIRO FUSCO / AP
It is never easy to recognize the consequences of age and the limits it imposes on the body. Even less for a head of state or religious. However, this is what Pope Francis did on Monday, September 4, on the plane taking him back to Rome after a visit to Mongolia.
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Asked by the press about his next trips, the head of the Catholic Church insisted on his physical abilities and what their limitation implies for the rest of his pontificate. “I will tell you the truthdid he declare. For me, traveling now is not as easy as in the beginning. There are limits, especially for walking. » The Argentine pope has been suffering from knee pain which has forced him to move around in a wheelchair since May 2022. He who has traveled the planet, multiplying visits to so-called peripheral countries, he admitted half-heartedly on Monday that he would no longer travel, at best, very little.
Referring to his forthcoming visit to Marseille for the Mediterranean Days on September 22 and 23, François hinted that he might also be able to go to “a small country in Europe”. The rumor of a trip to Kosovo has been circulating for several months in the Vatican. But even that remains very uncertain as the pontiff, who will be 87 in December, seems tired. “We are seeing if we can do it”he explained.
No mention of trips yet recently mentioned by himself, such as India and Argentina, Indonesia or East Timor. He hinted that the few days spent in Mongolia with the small local Catholic community and its dynamic bishop, Cardinal Giorgio Marengo, would be the last in a distant country. If not the last abroad.
Speculation on a possible waiver
Asked about a visit to Vietnam, the Pope joked: “If I don’t go, it will surely be John XXIV who will”, in reference to a possible successor. For several months now, the health of Pope Francis, hospitalized twice, has been questioning. The admission that gives the impression of a pope aware of his physical limitations could revive speculation about a possible renunciation.
Francis, whose trip to Mongolia was marked by the presence of Chinese faithful at each stage, also raised the issue of Catholics in China, placed under the strict control of the regime. The day before he had called them to be of “good citizens”. Asked about this expression, the Jesuit pope felt that China had to be made to understand that Catholics were not in a political process but only religious. “We need to move forward in the religious field to understand each other better, so that Chinese citizens do not think that the Church does not accept their culture and their valueshe explained. Let them not think that the Church depends on another foreign power. »
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