Politico has published a piece by Ben Munster on Pope Francis’ condition and the maneuvers he is supposedly making to ensure a continuity of his own policies in the next pontificate: “Pope Francis, sensing he is close to death, moves to protect his legacy.”
The article has a lot of chatter about ecclesiastical politics from informed sources. In two paragraphs, there is considerably more on the the Holy Father’s health than we are getting from the laconic announcements of the Holy See Press Office:
According to two people familiar with the matter, Francis has been suffering from intense pain and has privately expressed certainty he won’t make it this time. On Sunday, doctors at Gemelli distressed the pope by barring him from delivering his regular morning Angelus sermon, which he has rarely missed, even when hospitalized, said one of the people and a third person. He is now acting entirely on “doctors’ orders,” said one of them.
The pope initially resisted going to hospital but was told in no uncertain terms that he was at risk of dying if he stayed in his room in the Vatican, the second person added.
Not the Gospel, that’s for sure, but the news constitutes another encouragement to pray for the Holy Father.
Image credit: BogdanSolomenco, CC BY-SA 4.0 (text added to original by Catholicism.org), via Wikimedia Commons.
