Pope penned resignation letter in 2013: reportPope Francis signed a letter of resignation in 2013 to be used in case he was forced from his duties as a result of bad health.
"I have already signed my resignation. Tarcisio Bertone was Secretary of State. I signed it and I told him: ‘In case of impediment for medical reasons or whatever, here is my resignation,’" the Pope said during a 2022 interview, according to a report at the time from the New York Post.
The resurfaced interview comes as Francis has been hospitalized for over a week and was reported to be in critical condition after suffering an asthmatic respiratory crisis on Saturday, according to a report from the Associated Press...........
.....................Francis also received blood transfusions after tests revealed he had a low platelet count, according to a Reuters report.
Francis, who turned 88 in December, has long faced questions about what he would do if health issues left him unable to carry out his duties. Such questions would have been unheard of prior to 2013, when Pope Benedict XVI resigned, becoming the first papal resignation in over 600 years.
Francis revealed during the 2022 interview that he gave his resignation letter to the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, a holdover from Benedict XVI, about six months after being elected to the papacy in March 2013..................
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pope-penned-resignation-letter-2013-report
