For anyone wondering if the ailing Pope Francis will emulate his predecessor Pope Benedict and resign, it is not much use listening to what Francis himself has to say on the subject.
In a memoir, Life: My Story Through History, published last year, Francis wrote, “I think that the Petrine ministry is ‘ad vitam’ [‘for life’] and therefore I see no conditions for a resignation”, only to add in the next sentence, “things would change if a serious physical impediment were to arise”.
