Rumors of Pope Francis’ resignation? Newspaper in Italy shakes the waters and a Vaticanist comes out at the crossroads

The Chilean journalist Luis Badilla, The director of the Vatican news site “El Sismografo”, widely consulted by specialists because of his proximity to the Holy See, declared that “within a few weeks Pope Francis should legislate on the situation created by the resignation of a pontiff and the choice of another ”. Badilla denied that Jorge Bergoglio think about quitting, but added that “his illness should not be underestimated”.

The Right Journal “Free”, campaign against Bergoglio in which he claims his predecessor Benedict XVI did not actually resign from the pontificate, interviewed Badilla after his Vaticanist Antonio Socci argued that there are rumors of Conclave to say goodbye to the current Pope.

He gave as the only concrete source the fact that on December 17 will be 85 years old and he has health problems after undergoing colon surgery on July 4 at the Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome.

It is obvious that “Libero” shake the waters. Luis Badilla denies that Bergoglio is considering resigning and says so about it “It is not said in Vatican settings ”, but it contains some interesting details.

When the Pope underwent surgery, the alma mater of “Il Sismografo”, made up of a few senior journalists from Vatican radio, wrote a note (published by “Clarín”), in which he just gave information about what was happening.

said the pope suffered “A severe and degenerative operation”. Doctors, who never signed a report on his condition, removed a yardstick from his colon.

Considered a neighbor of the Vatican Secretary of State, Badilla once again shows that he has the best information. He specifies that “the Holy Father has already resized his way of acting, what some call his physical pastoral. He did this before the operation by limiting the timing of his movements.

Travel

It will start again in September. He will go to Budapest on Sunday 12th for the closing Mass of the International Eucharistic Congress and in my opinion reduce the schedule for your next visit to Slovakia, that compromises you physically.

In Slovakia, Francis has to travel between Bratislava and other cities. He will return to Rome on the 15th.

Badilla added that “from now on we must exclude intercontinental travel, the Pope has a fragile iron health which will impose to limit his autonomy”. a limited time, not extended ”.

Regarding the standards that Pope Bergoglio would be preparing to announce in the event of the resignation of a pope and the appointment of his successor, the Chilean Vaticanist underlines that “at the time of Ratzinger’s abdication, on February 11, 2013, Bergoglio had to invent canon law”.

“Now it is a question of legally codifying this situation,” he added.

Badilla denies in the same morning interview “Libero” and his campaign to delegitimize Bergoglio as pope, stressing that it was Benedict XVI himself, “who had spoken long before his resignation, saying that he was no longer in physical condition to be the Pope and not because someone prevented him from doing so.

Ratzinger “had the cosmic honesty to say that I am old and sick, the Church is difficult to rule, better if someone else does and I will obey them.”

Director of “He Seismograph” recognizes that “the Church is going through a very difficult period which worsened by the state of health of the Pope. But the crisis of the Church comes from a long time ago, it has many causes and arises from the moment in which the world is living. This makes the papacy more difficult, whoever the Pope is ”.

The successor

The last question concerns the candidate to succeed Bergoglio. “I answer with a sentence from the former cardinal of Genoa, Giuseppe Siri: Popes are made in the Conclave”.

But there are many signs that there is a successor already chosen by Jorge Bergoglio. “Clarin” has written several times about the “golden boy”, the “golden boy” of the Vatican, the cardinal Luis Antonio “Chito” Tagle.

At 63, with his youthful face, Chito (for Luis) Tagle seems to be traveling safely towards the goal of becoming 267th. Pope of the Church. Pope Benedict XVI, Joseph Ratzinger, appointed him as a young archbishop of Manila, capital of the Philippines, Catholic stronghold in Asia.

Already during the election of the successor of Benedict XVI, in March 2013, was on the “papables” list.

For the Church, “Chito” has among its many virtues that of being born the son of a Chinese woman, which in the Asian context it matters.

In January 2015, already a confirmed cardinal, Tagle received the Argentine Pope in Manila and coincided with the reformist line by Bergoglio.

Four years later, the Pope, while the Archbishop of Manila was also president of Caritas International, which manages the charitable works of the Church, the Pope promoted him to Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.

The step has been gigantic, because it is about a macro-ministerial structure of the Church, which since 1622 was created as Propaganda Fide, looked after the missions of the Church, its organization, its finances, its ecclesiastical promotion and the rest.

The only setback was that during a trip to the Philippines last year, Cardinal Tagle was infected with the pandemic virus. He overcame the infection well, which also bolstered his fame.

A common saying asserts that “whoever enters the Conclave the Pope leaves the cardinal”. It’s wrong. Without going any further, John XXIII designates the future Paul VI as his best successor “to apply Vatican Council II”. John Paul II promoted the election of his right-hand man, Cardinal Ratzinger, who only needed four votes in the conclave to be consecrated as Benedict XVI.

Maybe reality will change Luis Antonio Tagle’s stellar predictions, but the Conclave of the Cardinals Voters is already largely controlled in its two-thirds by the current pontiff. If in October-November he decides to create new cardinals, the majority would be overwhelming. And the Vatican’s “golden kid” would have the election assured.

Vatican, correspondent

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