Pope says option of resigning is only 'a distant hypothesis'

Pope Francis has no intention of resigning as he feels that his health is good enough to allow him to carry on, he says in a new book whose excerpts were published by Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper on Thursday.

"This is a distant hypothesis, because I don't have reasons serious enough to make me think about giving up," Francis was quoted as saying in "Life: My Story Through History," a book due out in Italian and English on March 19.

Francis is 87 and has been increasingly frail in recent years, using a wheelchair or a cane to move around and recently suffering from what have been described as bouts of bronchitis or colds that have led him to limit his public speaking.

Nevertheless, in the book he reassures about his condition.

"Thank the Lord, I enjoy good health and, God willing, there are many projects still to be realized," he said, repeating that he would consider quitting only in case of a "serious physical impediment."



Reuters