Pope Francis celebrates 10 years as head of the Roman Catholic Church on Monday, celebrating mass with cardinals in the Santa Marta chapel at the Vatican, where he has lived since his election.
Francis, 86, born in Argentina, became the first Latin American pontiff in history on March 13, 2013, succeeding Benedict XVI, the first pope in six centuries to resign.
“It seems like yesterday,” he said on a Vatican News podcast on Monday. “Time flies.”
When it was taped at her home on Sunday, she asked, “What is a podcast?” according to Vatican News journalist Salvatore Cernuzio. When it was explained he said “Cool. Let’s go”.
Former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio sought to project simplicity into grand function and never took possession of the papal apartments in the Apostolic Palace used by his predecessors, saying he preferred to live in a communal environment for his “psychological health”.
He invited all the cardinals who are in Rome with him to mass on Monday.
A persistent knee ailment has forced Francisco to alternate between a cane and a wheelchair, but he appears to be generally in good health.
“You don’t run the church with one knee, you run the church with your head,” he allegedly told an aide after starting to occasionally use a wheelchair in public for the first time last May.
Francis said he would be ready to step down if serious health problems prevented him from managing the 1.38 billion-member church. But he also said that according to him popes should try to remain in office for life and that being pope emeritus – as Benedict was – should not become a “fashion”.
Source: Terra
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