Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said a scheduled visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan in early July had been canceled “at the request of his doctors so as not to jeopardize the results of his knee treatment”. and will be rescheduled at a later date. Francis, who first appeared in public using a wheelchair in early May, canceled several engagements after undergoing minor surgery to treat knee pain. The Vatican has not revealed exactly what the problem is, but Francis told the Corriere della Sera last month that he needed a little “infiltration intervention” to tighten the ligament. The pope has planned a six-day trip to Canada on July 24 and another in Kazakhstan in September. Rumors continue to circulate that Francis could follow in the footsteps of Benedict XVI’s predecessor and step down. The debate escalated after he announced he would travel to Abruzzo L’Aquila in late August to attend a party started by a 13th-century pope who resigned after just five months at work. The speculation seems to have started during a private meeting with bishops in May, during which the Pope made a joke referring to his knee. “It would be better to give up than to have surgery,” he reportedly said. Francis underwent bowel surgery last summer. He is known to have suffered from sciatica, but so far he has never canceled his official trip due to ill health. In an interview with Argentine journalist Nelson Castro last year, he said he had never had to “cancel or restrict anything” and that he had never suffered from fatigue or shortness of breath. When asked how he imagined his death, he replied: “As a pope, in office or as an honorary. “And here in Rome, I will not return to Argentina.” At the beginning of his papal term in 2013, Francis said he would like to see a pope’s resignation return to normal, and in 2015 he said he felt his pope would be short, describing Benedict’s decision to resign as “courageous”. ». However, most commentators believe that it is unlikely that Francis will resign while Benedict is alive.
