Pope Francis, who had colon surgery two months ago, said the resignation “did not cross his mind”, opposing the denial of rumors carried by the Italian media.
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“It didn’t even cross my mind,” the Pope said in a lengthy interview broadcast on Wednesday by Spanish Catholic radio Cope, as he also announced new trips to Europe to underscore the point. He adds, “I don’t know where they came up with the idea that I’m going to quit!”
“As soon as the Pope is in the hospital, he blows a secret breeze or hurricane” (to elect a new sovereign pope), he joked, explaining that he walked away from rumors by not reading a single Italian a day and never watching TV.
“I’m still alive!” , the Pope let out a laugh, while particularly praising an “extremely experienced” Italian nurse.
“He saved my life! He told me, ‘You have to have an operation.’ There were other opinions,” such as the use of antibiotics, says the sovereign Argentine Pope, considering that the nurse gave him clear explanations.
His operation in early July in a hospital in Rome, under general anaesthesia, consisted of a “left colectomy” (surgery to remove part of the colon). The Pope suffered from a potentially painful inflammation of diverticula, hernias, or sacs that form on the walls of his digestive system.
François had waited until July for this “scheduled” intervention, when his schedule was relaxed.
The Pope noted in an interview with Radio Cope that he can now “eat anything, which was not the case before with diverticulosis.” “I still take post-surgery medications, because the brain has to register the fact that there is 33 cm of intestine less,” he adds, adding that he lives a “completely normal life.”
Pope Francis, who will turn 85 next December, has announced that he will soon visit Greece, Cyprus and Malta. He further confirmed that he was planning to give a speech, “already in preparation”, to COP26 in Glasgow in November, although “it will all depend on how I feel at the time”.
Francois, a follower of the “Parties”, noted that his first trip to Europe took place in Albania. “I wanted to make this choice: first to the small countries,” he commented, while Catholics in France and Spain desperately awaited a real state visit.
The Pope will visit Slovakia from 12 to 15 September, after a half-day layover in Budapest where he will preside over the closing mass of the 52nd International Eucharistic Conference.
The official program indicates that if his visit to Hungary is not a state visit, a double “meeting” is scheduled behind closed doors with President Janos Ader and Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
When asked what he would like to say to Viktor Orbán, who goes against his ideas on the issue of immigration, the Pope seemed to evade the question: “I don’t know if I will meet with him, I know that the authorities of the country will come to me.” But he indicated his approach to the leaders Politicians: encounters without a “pre-script” look at them “directly in their eyes.”
The Pope showed his good mind during this hour-and-a-half interview, personally defending a landmark, but controversial, agreement signed in 2018 between the Holy See and China over the appointment of bishops, which drew the ire of Donald Trump’s administration, which decries anti-religious persecution. from Beijing.
“We must follow these paths of dialogue, step by step, in the most conflicting situations,” the Pope said.
Finally, Francis was also captivated that he had missed the mysterious autumn in Buenos Aires, listening to the songs of Astor Piazzola, as he also did on walks among the parishes, but was unmoved by the “nostalgia”.
He also admits that he would love to walk the streets of Rome, but he cannot walk ten meters without being spotted.
