“I have no intention of relinquishing my Petrine ministry, at least for the time being,” Pope Francis said, according to a Vatican Radio report.

He added, “I don’t feel like the Lord is asking me at the moment, but if I feel like He is asking for it, then yes.” He accidentally described the fact that he went to the area of ​​L’Aquila, where Pope Celestine V was buried, in the days of the next Consistoire at the end of August.

Regarding the condition of his knee, the Pope emphasized that even if he feels limited, he is getting better. He added that a trip to the Congo definitely couldn’t have been made at the time, and continued, “I didn’t have the strength, but now, twenty days later, there’s this progress.”

Answering a question about the possibility of adopting laws on the identity of the Pope Emeritus, Pope Francis stressed that “history itself will help organize better, the first experiment went very well, because Benedict XVI is a holy and wise man. But for the future it is better to define things better or to explain things better.

Regarding the possibility of refusing the Petrine ministry, he replied that he would not go to Argentina: “I am the Bishop of Rome, and in this case I will be an honorary Bishop of Rome.” And if that happened, he said he could go to the bishopric at St. John’s Basilica in the Lateran. In this context, the Pope recalled that prior to the Conclave, he had retired from his post as Archbishop Emeritus of Buenos Aires. It was important for him that he visit the sick and perform the sacrament of confession for them. This could be his “apostolic work” to serve the people wherever he was, and he said that’s what I meant in Buenos Aires.