{"id":99339,"date":"2015-03-14T06:59:19","date_gmt":"2015-03-14T06:59:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=99339"},"modified":"2015-03-14T06:59:19","modified_gmt":"2015-03-14T06:59:19","slug":"pope-francis-hints-at-brief-papacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=99339","title":{"rendered":"Pope Francis hints at ‘brief’ papacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pope Francis has suggested he may resign his papacy like his predecessor, rather than remain at the Vatican for life.<\/p>\n

The pontiff made the comments during a interview with Mexican television, marking the second anniversary of his election.<\/p>\n

“I have the feeling that my pontificate will be brief. Four or five years; I do not know, even two or three,” he said.<\/p>\n

He praised Pope Benedict’s decision to step aside in 2013 as “courageous”.<\/p>\n

“Benedict should not be considered an exception, but an institution. Maybe he will be the only one for a long time, maybe he will not be the only one.<\/p>\n

“But an institutional door has been opened,” he told the Televisa channel.<\/p>\n

Pope Francis has hinted in the past that he could retire, but said he was opposed to the idea of an age limit for leaders of the Catholic Church.<\/p>\n

“To say that one is in charge up to 80 years, creates a sensation that the pontificate is at its end and that would not be a good thing,” he added.<\/p>\n

\"Pope
The pontiff revealed he missed being able to do simple things like visiting a pizzeria without being noticed<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A papal conclave elected Pope Francis as Benedict XVI’s successor on 13 March 2013. He became the first Latin American to lead the Church.<\/p>\n

During the interview he admitted he was “surprised” by the decision and had only carried a small suitcase to Rome, with the expectation he would return to Buenos Aires.<\/p>\n

His simple style has won him praise from Catholics, as have his promises to reform the Curia – the Church’s internal government.<\/p>\n

However, he said two years of his papacy had now passed and he felt it would not continue for very much longer.<\/p>\n

“I do not know. But I feel that the Lord has placed me here for a short time, and nothing more,” he added.<\/p>\n

“But it is a feeling. I always leave the possibility open.”<\/p>\n

He told Televisa that he “did not mind being Pope”, but missed the anonymity associated with life as a priest.<\/p>\n

“The only thing I would like is to go out one day, without being recognised, and go to a pizzeria for a pizza.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pope Francis has suggested he may resign his papacy like his predecessor, rather than remain at the Vatican for life. The pontiff made the comments during a interview with Mexican television, marking the second anniversary of his election. “I have the feeling that my pontificate will be brief. Four or five years; I do not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":99341,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[38,14],"class_list":["post-99339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","tag-palaver-newspaper","tag-papa-owusu-ankomah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=99339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=99339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=99339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=99339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}