On Monday, Pope Francis celebrated Mass with cardinals in the chapel of the Vatican’s Santa Marta hotel to commemorate his tenth anniversary as leader of the Roman Catholic Church.
Francis, who was born in Argentina and is now 86 years old, became the first Latin American pontiff on March 13, 2013, following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI.
It seems like yesterday,” he said in a podcast released by Vatican News on Monday. The passage of time moves quickly. It is already tomorrow by the time you finish your preparations for today.
According to Vatican News’ Salvatore Cernuzio, the pope asked, “What’s a podcast?” when the interview was recorded in his home on Sunday. Nice, he said when it was finally explained to him. Okay, let’s go ahead and do it.
Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, now Pope, said he preferred to live in a community setting for his “psychological health” and has avoided moving into the papal apartments in the Apostolic Palace used by his predecessors in an effort to project simplicity into the grand role.
All the other cardinals currently in Rome have been invited to attend the Mass with him on Monday.
Francis uses a cane or a wheelchair due to a chronic knee condition, but he seems otherwise healthy.
“You don’t run the Church with a knee but with a head,” he reportedly told an aide after he began occasionally using a wheelchair in public for the first time last May.
Francis has indicated that he is willing to resign if he is unable to continue leading the Church and its 1.38 billion members because of health issues. However, he has also stated that he believes popes should try to reign for life and that being an emeritus pope, as Benedict was, should not become a “fashion.” Benedict resigned due to his health, but he continued to live for another nine years.
Francis’ reign of 10 years as pope is now longer than the 265 previous pontificates combined (7.5 years on average). He has traveled the equivalent of nearly 410,000 kilometers, visiting 60 states and territories.
There has been much conjecture about his whereabouts because he has not returned to Argentina.
About 64% of the “cardinal electors” who are under 80 and therefore eligible to enter a conclave to elect his successor after his death or resignation have been named by him.
Francis celebrates the anniversary having endured conservative opposition within the Church, which has demanded his resignation on multiple occasions and is now at a crossroads, seeking new direction in the wake of the deaths of two of its leading figures.
It is generally agreed that the first pope, St. Peter the Apostle, presided for about 35 years.
Pius IX’s pontificate, which lasted more than 31 years from 1846 to 1878, was the longest in recent centuries. The papacy of John Paul II, who served from 1978 until 2005, comes next.
It is believed that Urban VII’s reign, which lasted only 13 days in 1590, is the shortest.
