Short answer: maybe.
Details from The Telegraph:
Pope Francis could resign over ill health says Italian cardinal.
Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, the former head of the Vatican’s department of cultural affairs, raised the possibility as the 88-year-old pontiff spent his sixth day in hospital battling pneumonia in both lungs.
He said the Pope had always been “decisive” and hinted that he might voluntarily step down as head of the Roman Catholic Church if his health restricted his ability to fulfil his duties.
The Cardinal said Pope Francis had a tendency to “fight”, but if he was no longer able to communicate in an “immediate, incisive and decisive way”, he may consider resigning.
“I think he could do it because he is a person who is quite decisive in his choices,” said Cardinal Ravasi in an interview with Italian radio network RTL on Thursday.
“He has always had the tendency to fight and react and that is a legitimate choice too, because he has been able to handle trips in very difficult and challenging conditions, like the one in the Far East,” Cardinal Ravasi said, referring to the Pope’s gruelling 20,000-mile trip last year to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore.
“However, there is no question that if he found himself in a situation where he was compromised in his ability to have direct contact – as he loves to do – to be able to communicate in an immediate, incisive and decisive way, then I believe he might consider resigning.”
How is the pope doing? Doctors held a press conference earlier today. OSV News had this report:
While Pope Francis’ life is not in immediate danger, the level of multiple infections in his lungs means he is not completely “out of danger,” said Dr. Sergio Alfieri, director of medical and surgical sciences at Rome’s Gemelli hospital.
The biggest risk he faces is sepsis, that is, if the infection that is currently localized only in his lungs passes into his bloodstream and begins to affect the rest of his body’s organs, the doctor told reporters in the hospital atrium Feb. 21.
Dr. Luigi Carbone and Dr. Sergio Alfieri brief reporters about Pope Francis’ health during a news conference in the atrium of Rome’s Gemelli hospital Feb. 21, 2025. Pope Francis has been hospitalized since Feb. 14. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
Pope Francis will need to stay hospitalized for at least another week, he said, in order to continue administering a wide range of drug and clinical therapies aimed at eradicating the viral, bacterial and fungal infections in his lungs as well as aid his breathing with low doses of cortisone. The pope does have supplemental oxygen available to take in with a nasal cannula when he needs it, he added, specifying he is “not hooked up to any machines.”
