ROMA.- Pope Francis said he wants to be buried in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore and not in the Vatican crypts like other popes, so he can be close to his favorite image of the Virgin.
Francisco, who turns 87 on Sunday, also said he never thought about resigning this year despite a series of health problems. He added that he has a confirmed trip to Belgium next year and is considering visiting Polynesia and his native Argentina.
“It is true that trips are now all rethought,” the pope commented to N+, on the Mexican network Televisa. “They may be further but they are rethought.”
It was Francisco’s first interview since overcoming acute bronchitis that forced him to cancel a trip this month to Dubai to participate in the United Nations climate conference. Francisco, who had part of his lung removed in his youth, seemed in good shape and said he had already recovered and was feeling well.
Although the position of Pope is for life, Francis He again confirmed the possibility of a resignation and said he has to prepare for any possibility. “I ask the Lord to say enough, at some point, but whenever he wants,” he said.
Francis has already said that if he retires, as Pope Benedict XVI did in 2013, he would want to live outside the Vatican, in a residence for retired priests in Rome. He has long emphasized his role as bishop of Rome and has a special devotion to an icon of the Virgin Mary displayed in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, near Rome’s main train station.
After each trip, for example, Francisco goes to the temple to pray before Our Lady of the Snows (Salus populi Romani), a Byzantine-style painting showing an image of Mary wrapped in a blue robe and holding the baby Jesus, who in turn holds a golden and jeweled book.
“It is my great devotion,” Francis said, adding that he has already decided that he wants to be buried nearby in the basilica. “The place is already prepared.”
Francisco suffered two bouts of bronchitis this year and was hospitalized for nine days in June to repair an abdominal hernia and have scar tissue removed from his intestine. In the last year he has used a wheelchair and a cane due to a sprained ligament in his knee.
Many popes are buried in tombs in the crypts under the Basilica of Saint Peter or in side chapels of the basilica itself, including all of Francis’s recent predecessors.
Regarding his travels, Francisco confirmed that he had a “pending” trip to his native Argentina and that the country’s new president, Javier Milei, had invited him. Francis has been besieged by questions during his decade-long pontificate about why he has not returned home, questions that have only grown after Milei’s victory.
Francis will travel to Belgium for the 600th anniversary of the country’s two main Catholic universities. The pontiff is expected to spend a day or two in the country on a date yet to be determined, the Belgian bishops said in a statement in which they celebrated the confirmation of the visit.
Source: With information from AP
