Pope Francis, showing plans to stay on, starts new Catholic reform process

A person holds a picture of Pope Francis near the statue of late Pope John Paul II outside Gemelli Hospital where Pope Francis is admitted to continue treatment, in Rome, Italy, March 9, 2025. REUTERS/Vincenzo Livieri/File Photo
Pope Francis approved
a new three-year process to consider reforms for the global Catholic Church,
the Vatican said on Saturday, in a sign the 88-year-old pontiff plans to
continue on as pope despite his ongoing battle with double pneumonia.
Francis has extended the work of the Synod of Bishops, a
signature initiative of his 12-year papacy, which has discussed reforms
such as the possibility of women serving as Catholic deacons and better
inclusion of LGBTQ people in the Church.
The synod, which held an inconclusive Vatican summit of
bishops on the future of the Church last October, will now hold consultations
with Catholics across the world for the next three years, before hosting a new
summit in 2028.
Francis approved the new process for reforms on Tuesday from
Rome's Gemelli hospital, where he is being treated, the Vatican said on
Saturday.
The pope has been in hospital for more than a month and his
prolonged public absence has stoked speculation that he could choose to follow
his predecessor Benedict XVI and resign from the papacy.
His friends and biographers have insisted, however,
that he has no plans to step down. The approval of a new three-year
process indicated he wants to continue on, despite his age and the possibility
he might face a long, fraught road to recovery from pneumonia, given
his age and other medical conditions.
"The Holy Father ... is helping push the renewal of the
Church toward a new missionary impulse," Cardinal Mario Grech, the
official leading the reform process, told the Vatican's media outlet.
"This is truly a sign of hope."
Francis, who has been pope since 2013, is widely seen as
trying to open up the staid global Church to the modern world.
However, the pope's reform agenda has upset some Catholics,
including a few senior cardinals. They have accused him of watering down the
Church's teachings on issues such as same-sex marriage, and divorce and
remarriage.
Massimo Faggioli, a U.S. academic who has followed the
papacy closely, said the new reform process is a way for the pope to signal
that he is still the leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics.
"Francis' pontificate is not over, and this decision he
just made for what happens between now and 2028 will have an effect on the rest
of (it)," said Faggioli, a professor at Villanova University.
After last October's inconclusive Vatican summit, which
yielded no concrete action on possible reforms, Francis had faced questions of
whether his papacy was running out of steam.
Vatican officials had said at the time that Francis was
still considering future changes, and was waiting to receive a series of 10
expected reports about possible reforms this June.
The latest medical bulletins from the Vatican on the pope's
condition in hospital have said he is improving and is no longer in
immediate danger of death.
Well-wishers have been gathering to offer support for
Francis outside the hospital each day during the pope's recovery.
Stefania Gianni, an Italian being treated for cancer at the
facility, said on Saturday that Francis "has taken great steps to bring
the Church up to date with the times".
"He is a great man and a great pope, and the Church
still needs him," she said.
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