Press Conference (4): The Pope Will Step Down “If the Lord Commands”

To the question, which burns many lips, to know if he will resign one day, Pope Francis answers: “It is the Lord who commands”. If the Jesuit pope feels that the Lord “says something” to him through “an inspiration”, he will make “a discernment to see what the Lord asks”.

During the press conference during the return flight from the apostolic journey to Canada (July 24-30, 2022), Friday, July 29, 2022, Pope Francis answered questions from Caroline Pigozzi, of Paris Match, asking him about a possible resignation.

“It’s up to the Lord to say. The Jesuit seeks to do the will of the Lord, and even the Jesuit pope must do the same,” he insisted. “It may be that the Lord wants to send me to a corner, it’s his business, he’s in charge”.

As for knowing if he feels more pope or Jesuit, Francis replies “I feel myself a servant of the Lord, with the habit of a Jesuit”. The papacy is not a “spirituality”, but a “service”, which everyone carries “with his own spirituality, with his own graces, with his own fidelity and his own sins”.

Here is the question from Caroline Pigozzi (Paris Match) and the answer from Pope Francis:

This morning, you met at the archdiocese, as every time you go to a country, the local members of the Society of Jesus, your family. nine years ago, returning from WYD in Brazil, July 28, 2013, I asked you if you still felt Jesuit. Your response was positive. Last December 4, after having seen the Jesuits of Greece, in Athens, you explained this: “When you start a process, you have to let it develop, let the work grow and then you have to withdraw. All Jesuits must do the same, no work belongs to them because it belongs to the Lord”. Holy Father, could this statement one day also be valid for a Jesuit pope?

I believe so, yes.

Does that mean you could retire like the Jesuits?

Yes yes ; it is a vocation.

To be pope or to be a Jesuit?

That’s for the Lord to say. The Jesuit seeks – he seeks, he does not always do it, he cannot, he seeks – to do the will of the Lord, and even the Jesuit pope must do the same. When the Lord speaks, if the Lord tells you to “move forward”, you move forward; if the Lord tells you “go around the corner”, you go around the corner. But it’s the Lord…

But you seem to say that we are waiting for death, at this point…

But we are all waiting for death!

I mean, you don’t retire until…

What the Lord says. The Lord can say: “Submit your resignation”. It is the Lord who commands. There is something about Saint Ignatius, it’s important: when someone was tired, sick, when he said to Saint Ignatius: “I can’t pray”, he exempted him from prayer. But he never dispensed with the examination of conscience: twice a day, look at what happened… It’s not a question of sins or the absence of sins, no: “What spirit animated me today ? “. Our vocation said: “to find out what happened today. If – it is a hypothesis – I see that the Lord is telling me something, an inspiration of this or that, I must make a discernment to see what the Lord is asking. It may be that the Lord wants to send me to a corner, it’s his business, he’s in charge. I believe this is the religious way of life of a Jesuit: to stand in spiritual discernment to make decisions, to choose ways of working and also to choose one’s commitments. Discernment is the key to the Jesuit vocation. This is important. Saint Ignatius was very firm on this point, because it was his own experience of spiritual discernment that led him to conversion. And the spiritual exercises are truly a school of discernment. Thus the Jesuit must be, by vocation, a man of discernment, to discern situations, to discern his own conscience, to discern the decisions to be made. And that is why he must be open to whatever the Lord asks of him. It’s a bit like our spirituality.

But now, do you feel more pope or more Jesuit?

I have never measured this! Never ! I feel like a servant of the Lord, with the habit of the Jesuit, because there is no papal spirituality, that does not exist. Each pope advances with his own spirituality. Think of Saint John Paul II, with his beautiful Marian spirituality, which he had before and which he had as pope. Think of all the popes who have developed their own spirituality. The papacy is not a spirituality, it is a job, it is a function, it is a service, but each one carries it with his own spirituality, with his own graces, with his own fidelity and his own sins. But there is no papal spirituality, that is why there is no comparison between Jesuit spirituality and papal spirituality because the second does not exist. You understood ? Thanks thanks.

© Translation by Zenit, Hélène Ginabat