Pope Francis reveals that he signed his resignation in case of medical impediment years ago

Pope Francis signed his resignation in case of medical impediment more than nine years ago. This was revealed by the pontiff himself in an interview with the newspaper ‘abc‘, in which he indicates that he signed it when Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone was still Vatican Secretary of State, before, therefore, being replaced in office in October 2013.

“I have already signed my resignation. It was Tarcisio Bertone, the Secretary of State. I signed it and told him: ‘In case of impediment for medical reasons or what do I know, here is my resignation. they already have it‘. I don’t know who Cardinal Bertone gave it to, but I gave it to him when he was Secretary of State”, he specified.

Francis himself has pointed out that “It is the first time” that this information countswhich is known after this past summer -as you can remember in the video a few lines below- he indicated that his resignation would not be “a catastrophe” and declared before journalists that “the door is open” and that it is “a very normal option”.

Then, however, he specified that for the moment he was not thinking about it: “The door is open and it is one of the options, but eventime I have not knocked on this door. I have not felt this possibility yet, but this does not mean that tomorrow I will not start thinking about it, “said Francisco, who referred to his state of health.

In the interview published this Sunday, one day after his 86th birthdayFrancis has also spoken about the sexual abuse within the Church and, specifically, he explained why, after meeting with a victim from the Gaztelueta school in Bilbao, he decided to reopen this case of abuse in Spain.

“The victim told me his story and that he had not received a response from the trial in the Vatican. I got here and had it checked. There had been a trial, but since there had been a civil sentence, they were content with that and did not proceed. For this reason, I appointed a court, presided over by the Bishop of Teruel, and things are underway. I don’t know what stadium he is in, but I know he is in good hands,” he pointed out.

The pontiff has assured that it is not the only case reopened: “There is another case of a Spanish priest. The process was started, but it had gotten lost. I passed it to the Spanish Rota. And the president of the Rota is taking it forward. We have reopened them without any scruples.”

For Francis, “it does not depend only” on the work of the Church in this field “whether forgiveness is achieved or not”. “But there is one thing I want to say. You have to interpret the problems with the hermeneutics of your time. As we do with slavery. At that time they argued about whether slaves had souls or did not have souls. It is unfair to judge an ancient situation with today’s hermeneutics. The hermeneutics of before was to hide everything, as unfortunately is now done in some sectors of society, such as families and neighborhoods “, he stated. About the cover-ups from other timesthe Pope has stressed that it is “a progress of humanity that is increasingly taking charge of moral questions that do not have to subsist like this.”