Pope Francis and the increasing burden of age

ANALYSIS: The Holy Father will turn 88 next week.

Pope Francis, who will turn 88 on December 17, is the second-oldest pope in modern history (after Pope Leo XIII, who died in 1903 at age 93). Pope Benedict XVI resigned at age 85 and lived almost another decade as Pope Emeritus. Pope Saint John Paul II was almost 85 years old when he died in 2005.

The world is getting used to older leaders, both inside and outside the Church. President-elect Donald Trump will be almost 83 years old—and the oldest president in American history—at the end of his term in 2029. It is increasingly common to see octogenarians and even nonagenarians still working in various fields.

However, longer life expectancy raises the possibility of greater frailty. President Joe Biden withdrew from his re-election campaign in July after evidence of age-related decline made victory seem impossible. Saint John Paul II battled Parkinson’s disease during the last years of his life. And when Pope Benedict XVI resigned in 2013 (the first pontiff to do so in nearly six centuries), he cited “the increasing burden of age,” which he said had left him too weak to carry out the duties of a 21st-century pope. .

Pope Benedict XVI suggested in his resignation speech that the mental and physical demands of the papacy had increased “in today’s world, subject to rapid transformations and shaken by issues of great relevance to the life of faith.” He later said he retired when he did after his doctor warned him not to travel to Brazil for World Youth Day, a task that was not in the original job description of St. Peter’s successors.

Dealing with the issue of its aging leaders has been part of the Church’s efforts to adapt to the modern world. The Second Vatican Council (1962-65) introduced the concept of emeritus bishops, urging diocese leaders to resign if they became “less capable of adequately fulfilling their duties due to the increasing burden of age or some other serious reason.” . Until then, the norm was for bishops to have a lifetime mandate. Saint Paul VI established the practice of bishops resigning at the age of 75.

Saint Paul VI also made it so that cardinals could not vote in a conclave to elect a Pope after they had turned 80. That decision was controversial at the time. “It is an act committed in contempt of a tradition that is centuries old,” said Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani, who had been a conservative leader at Vatican II. “In fact, throughout the centuries it has been held immutably that, in fact, advanced age guaranteed to the Church counselors rich in experience, certainty, prudence and doctrine.”

But the age limit for cardinals to vote is useful to the Popes, as it allows them to remake the electorate according to their personal vision.

Pope Francis has named 79% of the body that would elect his successor if a conclave were held today. In the process, the first Pope from the Global South has reduced the proportion of cardinal electors who come from the Church’s historic heartland, Europe, to 39%, down from 52% in the 2013 conclave, and has tended to favor progressives. theological and political over conservatives in their nominations.

Pope Francis has been less optimistic about a mandatory retirement age for Popes.

“You can, but I don’t really like that, putting an age on it. Because I believe that the Papacy has something of, of last resort,” he told a journalist in 2015. According to canon law, the Pope has “ordinary power, which is supreme, full, immediate and universal in the Church, and which can always exercise freely.”

So any retirement age he might set would be nothing more than a suggestion for future pontiffs.

Pope Francis has repeatedly praised his predecessor for opening the door to papal resignation and has said he himself would resign if he saw the need. He has said he signed a letter of resignation that would take effect if he became incapacitated, a step also taken by St. Paul VI and St. John Paul II, although it is unclear what legal value such a document would have.

Pope Francis, who has twice undergone abdominal surgery during his papacy, has been hospitalized for breathing problems and has been wheelchair-bound since May 2022, has a more obvious disability than Pope Benedict XVI did when he resigned. However, earlier this year, Pope Francis dismissed speculation that he was considering resigning and has been very active ever since.

In September he made the longest trip of his pontificate — an 11-day marathon through Asia and Oceania — and in October he oversaw a month-long synod at the Vatican. He plans to visit the French island of Corsica two days before his birthday this month and recently said he plans to travel to Turkey to mark the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea in 2025.

“To steer the boat of Saint Peter and announce the Gospel, vigor of both body and spirit is also necessary,” said Pope Benedict XVI when announcing his resignation. His successor seems determined to show that he still has both.

Translated and adapted by the ACI Prensa team. Originally published in National Catholic Register.