Pope Francis says he resigned 10 years ago
Pope Francis has revealed that he had signed a resignation letter nearly a decade ago should poor health prevent him from carrying out his duties.
The pope, who turned 86 on Saturday, had in the past said that he would step down from the papacy should health problems kept him from his duties, Punch reports.
In the Spanish newspaper ABC, the pontiff said he signed his resignation letter and handed it over to the Vatican’s secretary of state, Tarcisio Bertone, before that cardinal’s retirement in 2013.
“I signed the resignation and I told him, ‘In case of medical impediment or whatever, here’s my resignation. You have it’,” the pope said.
Asked by the interviewer whether he wanted that fact to be known, Francis replied, “That’s why I’m telling you.”
He added that he didn’t know what Bertone subsequently did with the letter.
Francis has been limited in his ability to walk by an inoperable knee condition which has forced him to rely on a wheelchair in recent months.
Francis’s predecessor, Benedict XVI, quit over failing health in 2013. He now lives quietly in Vatican City.
