Expert on sick Francis: Ratzinger would have resigned already

According to Italian Vatican expert Piero Schiavazzi, Pope Francis' current state of health is not yet a reason for the head of the Church to resign. "Ratzinger would have already resigned in this condition, because he always linked fitness for office to physical health," the university lecturer in Vatican diplomacy at Rome's Link University told ORF on Friday, referring to the previous Pope Benedict XVI. For Francis, however, his fitness for office as head of the Church depends on his intellect, Schiavazzi explained: "As long as he is lucid, this is an office for life." Benedict XVI resigned from the office of Pope in 2013.

Francis is a fighter, Schiavazzi emphasised. "Whatever is going on in this hospital room, Francis is not someone who wants to die in a place like this. He is a man of the field hospital. He wants to die in the field."

The 88-year-old Francis has been treated for three weeks in the private wing of Rome's Gemelli Hospital for a complex respiratory infection with bilateral pneumonia. He has suffered several respiratory crises, most recently last Monday. In the days since then, the Pope's state of health has been described as stable in the regular Vatican bulletins. The medical team nevertheless spoke of a "guarded prognosis". (KNA)