“It will be a disaster.” These words, pronounced on March 13, 2013, the day when Cardinal Argentino Jorge Mario Bergoglio was chosen by his companions to succeed Pope Benedict XVI, by the Slovenian cardinal Franco Rodé and informed by journalist Frédéric Mounier, Le Pape François. Unites Vie (“Pope Francis: a life”), reflected the thought of a significant portion of high -ranking members of the Catholic clergy.
The Cardinal Electores College had just chosen the first Jesuit Pope in history, and the first non -European Pope from Gregory III in the 8Th Century. For many, Bergoglio, who had built most of his career away from the internal functioning of the Vatican and spoke very little Italian, was not cut for the paper.
However, 10 years later, and despite the rumors of resignation, Pope Francis is still here. At 86 years of age, relieved by a knee problem and the consequences of colon surgery in December 2021, he continues to travel, to address the 1,345 billion Catholics in the world (almost 100 million more than 10 years) and govern a church. And it is not certain that this will change soon. The resignation of a Pope “should not become a trend,” he warned in an interview published in mid -February by the magazine The Cattolica Civilta.
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