Pope Francis acknowledged Saturday that he can no longer travel as much as he used to because of strained knee ligaments, saying his weeklong Canadian pilgrimage was “a bit of a test” that showed he needed to slow down and one day possibly retire.
Speaking to reporters as he traveled home from northern Nunavut, Francis, 85, stressed he had not considered resigning, but said “the door is open” and there was nothing wrong with resigning. a pope
“It’s not strange. It’s not a catastrophe. You can change the pope,” he said while sitting in a wheelchair on a plane during a 45-minute news conference.
Francis said that while he hadn’t considered resigning until now, he realizes that he at least needs to slow down.
Pope Francis looks on during a press conference aboard the papal plane on his return flight after visiting Canada on July 29, 2022. GUGLIELMO MANGIAPANE/POOL/AFP/Getty Images
“I think that at my age and with these limitations, I have to save (my energy) to be able to serve the church, or on the contrary, think about the possibility of taking a step to the side,” he said.
Francis was beset by questions about the future of his pontificate after the first trip in which he used a wheelchair, a walker and a cane to get around, drastically limiting his schedule and his ability to mingle with crowds.
He strained ligaments in his right knee earlier this year and continued laser and magnetic therapy forced him to cancel a trip to Africa that was scheduled for the first week of July.
The trip to Canada was difficult and featured several moments when Francis was clearly in pain as he maneuvered himself up and down from chairs.
At the end of his six-day tour, he appeared in good spirits and energetic, despite a long day traveling to the edge of the Arctic on Friday to apologize to indigenous peoples for the injustices they suffered in residential schools in the church of canada
Francis ruled out knee surgery, saying it wouldn’t necessarily help and noted that “there are still traces” of the effects of undergoing more than six hours of anesthesia in July 2021 to remove 13 inches of his intestine fat
“I’m going to try to keep traveling and being close to people because I think it’s a way to give service, to be close. But more than that, I can’t say,” he said Saturday.
In other comments aboard the papal plane, Francis agreed that the attempt to wipe out indigenous culture in Canada through a church-run residential school system amounted to “genocide” cultural
Francis said he did not use the term during his trip to Canada because it did not occur to him. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada determined in 2015 that the forced removal of Indigenous children from their homes and placement in church-run residential schools to assimilate them into Christian Canadians constituted a “cultural genocide”.
“It’s true that I didn’t use the word because it didn’t come to mind, but I did describe genocide, didn’t I?” Francis said. “I asked for forgiveness, I asked for forgiveness for this work, which was genocide.”