Pope Francis maintains that he would only resign in the event that fatigue “prevented him from seeing things clearly” or because of a physical problem. This is indicated by the pontiff in an interview that will be broadcast by Swiss Radio a few days after the tenth anniversary of his pontificate and that Italian media are advancing this Friday.

“A tiredness that doesn’t make you see things clearly. The lack of clarityto assess situations. Even the Physical problemit can be”, Francisco specifies about the possibility of renouncing the pontificate as he did Benedict XVI. In this regard, he assures that he asks people who know him or “intelligent cardinals” how things are going and that for the moment they tell him “it’s going well.” “But please: shout on time”, he asks them nonetheless, so that they can tell him when they see that something is not working.

Francisco already announced in an interview with ‘ABC’ that he had wrote a letter of resignationas other pontiffs have done in the past, in case of suffering a serious health problem.

When asked how much has changed after a decade of pontificate, Francis responds like this: “I’m old. I have less physical resistance, the knee was a physical humiliation, although it is already healing well”. He also acknowledges that at first he was “a little ashamed” to have to use the wheelchair. When asked how he imagines “the afterlife After death, he admits: “I can’t imagine it. I do not know what could be. I only ask the Virgin to be by my side.”

A Third World War

On the other hand, the pontiff affirms in this interview that currently we are living a Third War world that “started in pieces, but now nobody can say that it is not global”. “The great powers are all entangled. The battlefield is Ukraine. They all fight there. This suggests the arms industry. The war is fought, old weapons are sold, new ones are tested, “he reflects.

On what he would say to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, he points out: “I would speak to him clearly as I speak in public. He is a cultured man.” “On the second day of the war, I was at the Russian embassy before the Holy See to say that I was ready to go to Moscow on the condition that Putin gave me a window to negotiate. Lavrov wrote me thanking me but now is not the time. Putin knows that I am available. But there are imperial interests there, not only of the Russian Empire, but of other empires. It is like the empire to put nations second,” he adds.

Regarding Europe, Francisco points out that “right now it has many young politicians, heads of government or ministers” and that he always tells them to talk to each other. “He is from the left, you are from the right, but you are young, he speaks. It’s time for dialogue among young people,” he stresses.