VATICAN CITY, July 4 (Reuters) – Pope Francis has dismissed experiences that he plans to resign within the close to future, saying he’s on observe to go to Canada this month and hopes to have the ability to go to Moscow and Kyiv as quickly as potential after that.

In an unique interview in his Vatican residence, Francis additionally denied rumours that he had most cancers, joking that his docs “did not inform me something about it”, and for the primary time gave particulars of the knee situation that has prevented him finishing up some duties.

In a 90-minute dialog on Saturday afternoon, carried out in Italian, with no aides current, the 85-year-old pontiff additionally repeated his condemnation of abortion following the U.S. Supreme Court docket ruling final month.

Rumours have swirled within the media {that a} conjunction of occasions in late August, together with conferences with the world’s cardinals to debate a brand new Vatican structure, a ceremony to induct new cardinals, and a go to to the Italian metropolis of L’Aquila, may foreshadow a resignation announcement.

L’Aquila is related to Pope Celestine V, who resigned the papacy in 1294. Pope Benedict XVI visited town 4 years earlier than he resigned in 2013, the primary pope to take action in about 600 years.

However Francis, alert and comfortable all through the interview as he mentioned a variety of worldwide and Church points, laughed the concept off.

“All of those coincidences made some assume that the identical ‘liturgy’ would occur,” he mentioned. “Nevertheless it by no means entered my thoughts. For the second no, for the second, no. Actually!”

Francis did, nevertheless, repeat his typically acknowledged place that he would possibly resign sometime if failing well being made it unimaginable for him to run the Church – one thing that had been nearly unthinkable earlier than Benedict XVI.

Requested when he thought that is likely to be, he mentioned: “We do not know. God will say.”

KNEE INJURY

The interview befell on the day he was to have left for Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan, a visit he needed to cancel as a result of docs mentioned he may also must miss a visit to Canada from July 24-30 until he agreed to have 20 extra days of remedy and relaxation for his proper knee. learn extra

He mentioned the choice to cancel the Africa journey had precipitated him “a lot struggling”, significantly as a result of he needed to advertise peace in each international locations. learn extra

Francis used a cane as he walked right into a reception room on the bottom flooring of the Santa Marta visitor home the place he has lived since his election in 2013, eschewing the papal condominium within the Apostolic Palace utilized by his predecessors.

The room has a replica of one in every of Francis’ favorite work: “Mary, Untier of Knots”, created round 1700 by the German Joachim Schmidtner.

Requested how he was, the pope joked: “I am nonetheless alive!”

He gave particulars of his ailment for the primary time in public, saying he had suffered “a small fracture” within the knee when he took a misstep whereas a ligament was infected.

“I’m nicely, I’m slowly getting higher,” he mentioned, including that the fracture was knitting, helped by laser and magnet remedy.

Francis additionally dismissed rumours {that a} most cancers had been discovered a 12 months in the past when he underwent a six-hour operation to take away a part of his colon due to diverticulitis, a situation widespread within the aged.

“It (the operation) was an incredible success,” he mentioned, including with fun that “they did not inform me something” in regards to the supposed most cancers, which he dismissed as “court docket gossip”.

However he mentioned he didn’t need an operation on his knee as a result of the overall anaesthetic in final 12 months’s surgical procedure had had adverse side-effects.

PAPAL TRIP TO MOSCOW?

Talking of the scenario in Ukraine, Francis famous that there have been contacts between Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Russian International Minister Sergei Lavrov a couple of potential journey to Moscow.

The preliminary indicators weren’t good. No pope has ever visited Moscow, and Francis has repeatedly condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; final Thursday he implicitly accused it of waging a “merciless and mindless warfare of aggression”. learn extra

When the Vatican first requested a couple of journey a number of months in the past, Francis mentioned Moscow replied that it was not the suitable time.

However he hinted that one thing could now have modified.

“I want to go (to Ukraine), and I needed to go to Moscow first. We exchanged messages about this as a result of I believed that if the Russian president gave me a small window to serve the reason for peace …

“And now it’s potential, after I come again from Canada, it’s potential that I handle to go to Ukraine,” he mentioned. “The very first thing is to go to Russia to attempt to assist indirectly, however I want to go to each capitals.”

ABORTION RULING

Requested in regards to the U.S. Supreme Court docket’s ruling overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling establishing a girl’s proper to have an abortion, Francis mentioned he revered the choice however didn’t have sufficient info to talk about it from a juridical standpoint. learn extra

However he strongly condemned abortion, evaluating it to “hiring a success man”. The Catholic Church teaches that life begins in the meanwhile of conception.

“I ask: Is it respectable, is it proper, to eradicate a human life to resolve an issue?”

Francis was requested a couple of debate in the US over whether or not a Catholic politician who’s personally against abortion however helps others’ proper to decide on ought to be allowed to obtain the sacrament of communion.

Home of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi, for instance, has been barred by the conservative archbishop of her house diocese of San Francisco from receiving it there, however is recurrently given communion at a parish in Washington, D.C. Final week, she obtained the sacrament at a papal Mass within the Vatican. learn extra

“When the Church loses its pastoral nature, when a bishop loses his pastoral nature, it causes a political downside,” the pope mentioned. “That is all I can say.”

Reporting by Philip Pullella; Enhancing by Kevin Liffey

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