Pope Francis has also written a letter of resignation, to be invoked if he became medically incapacitated.
Pope Francis was well enough to meet with the Vatican secretary of state to approve new decrees for possible saints and make some major governing decisions that suggest he is getting essential work done and looking ahead despite being hospitalized in critical condition with double pneumonia. The audience, which occurred Monday, signalled that the machinery of the Vatican is still grinding on even though doctors have warned the prognosis for the 88-year-old Francis is guarded.
The Vatican’s Tuesday noon bulletin contained a series of significant decisions, most importantly that Francis had met with Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Archbishop Edgar Pena Parra, the so-called Vatican “substitute” or chief of staff. It was the first known time the pope had met with Parolin, who is essentially the Vatican prime minister, since his Feb. 14 hospitalisation.
During the audience,…
