Pope Francis in a candid conversation with his fellow Jesuits during a recent trip to Africa, said he believes the papacy is for life and that stepping down should not become a habit in Catholicism, the Crux website reports today (Feb. 18, 2023).
During the trip, he met privately with Jesuits serving in both the Congo and South Sudan. In each meeting, he was asked about his thoughts about papal resignation and whether he was considering it himself, and in each meeting, he said no.
Speaking to 82 Jesuits gathered for his Feb. 2 meeting in Kinshasa, Francis said, as he has in past interviews, that he wrote a letter of resignation two months after his March 2013 election and gave it to his then-secretary of state, Italian Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, in case his health ever prevented him from exercising his office and he wasn't fully conscious to resign in that moment.
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