Pope acknowledges criticism and health issues

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis says he has no plans to resign and isn’t suffering from any health problems that would require doing so, saying in a new memoir he still has “many projects to bring to fruition.”

Francis, 87, made the comments in an autobiography, “Life: My Story Through History,” which is being published Tuesday, the 11th anniversary of his installation as pope. Extensive excerpts were published Thursday in the Italian daily Corriere della Sera.

In the memoir, written with Italian journalist Fabio Marchese Ragona, Francis traces key moments of his life and their intersection with world events (World War II, Argentina’s military dictatorship and Vatican intrigue) and how they together inform his priorities as pope.

Significantly, he addresses recurring speculation about his health problems, criticism from conservatives and what both may mean for the future of his pontificate. Such questions have always surrounded the papacy, but the prospect of a papal resignation became a reality only with the late Pope Benedict XVI’s historic 2013 retirement.

Francis, who had part of one lung removed as a young man, has been battling bronchitis, the flu and a cold on and off this winter, and for the past two weeks he has asked an aide to read most of his speeches. He had a chunk of his large intestine removed in 2021 and was hospitalized three times last year, including once to remove intestinal scar tissue from previous surgeries to address diverticulosis, or bulges in his intestinal wall.

In his memoir, he stressed that the papacy is a job for life but that “if a serious physical impediment” occurs, he has already penned a letter of resignation that is being held in the Secretariat of State.