Pope Francis Considers Resigning

[Buffy]

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/1 ... ed-outside

Pope Francis Considers Resigning, Decides To Be Buried Outside the Vatican, in the Basilica of St. Mary Major
After a bad bout of pneumonia, Pope Francis reportedly has improved significantly, but it has now arisen that he is making detailed plans for his funeral.

Francis says he wants to be buried in the Rome basilica of St. Mary Major, and not in the grottoes of the Vatican like other popes.

Sources say he wants to be near his favorite icon of the Madonna.

The Pontiff, who turns 87 on Sunday, declared that he never thought about resigning this year, despite a series of health scares.
A trip to Belgium has been confirmed for next year, but visits to Polynesia and his native Argentina are under careful consideration.
“’It is true that all journeys are now rethought’, Francis told N+ of Mexican broadcaster Televisa. ‘If they’re close by, they can be done. If they’re farther away, they are rethought. There are limits’.”
Francis gave his first interview since his hospital internment for acute bronchitis. The severe illness forced the cancellation of his trip this month to Dubai, where he was to exercise his climate alarmism in the U.N. COP28 conference.
Francis, who as a young man had part of one lung removed, was in good form and declared that he had recovered and was feeling well.

“While the job of pope is for life, Francis reconfirmed the possibility of resignation and said he has to prepare for any possibility. ‘I ask the Lord to say enough, at some point, but when he wants me to’, he said.

Francis has already said if he retires, as Pope Benedict XVI did in 2013, he would want to live outside the Vatican somewhere in Rome in a residence for retired priests. Francis has long emphasized his role as bishop of Rome and has a particular devotion to an icon of the Virgin Mary on display in the St. Mary Major basilica near Rome’s main train station.”

Francis has a longstanding attachment to the icon. After every trip, he goes to the basilica to pray before the Salus populi Romani (Salvation of the people of Rome).

It’s a Byzantine-style painting that features an image of Our Lady, draped in a blue robe, holding the infant Jesus who in turn is holding a jeweled golden book.

“’It’s my great devotion’, Francis said, adding that he had already decided he wanted to be buried nearby in the basilica. ‘The place is already prepared’.”


Besides the two bouts of bronchitis that Francis had this year, he was also hospitalized in June to repair an abdominal hernia, and have intestinal scar tissue removed.

Many popes are buried in tombs located in the grottos underneath St. Peter’s Basilica, or in side chapels inside the basilica itself.

Those include all of Francis’ recent predecessors.

Francis’ planned visit to Belgium is to celebrate the 600th anniversary of the country’s two main Catholic universities. In a statement Wednesday welcoming Francis’ confirmation of the visit, Belgium’s bishops said Francis was expected to stay a day or two, with a date still to be determined.”
There are a few Popes buried in the Rome basilica of St. Mary Major, including Pope Pius V.

He who ruled the church from 1566 to 1572, and was the pontiff who standardized the celebration of the Mass, which would become known as the ‘Tridentine Mass’, and would remain basically unchanged until the post-Vatican II reforms of Pope Paul VI in 1969.

Pope Pius issued the Tridentine Mass with the bull Quo primum of July 14, 1570, which contained the provision that “this ordinance applies henceforth, now, and forever, throughout all the provinces of the Christian world.” That line is much cited by devotees of the Latin Mass who believe that post-Vatican II popes, above all Francis, have exceeded their authority (or, at the very least, upended tradition) by restricting celebration of the older rite.

[…] It’s got to be some sort of testament to the both/and character of Catholicism that the pope who launched the Tridentine celebration, and the pope who’s perceived as attempting to extinguish it, will now be entombed cheek by jowl in the same liturgical space.”