On Friday, March 13, on the second anniversary of his election, Pope Francis said he doesn’t think he’ll be in the job for more than five years.
According to CBS News, in an interview with the Mexican broadcaster Televisa, Francis said “I have the sensation that my pontificate will be brief: four or five years. I don’t know. Or two or three. Well, two have already passed!”
According to CBS News, Francis has previously said he thought he’d be pope for two to three years and that the precedent set by Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation in 2013 shouldn’t be considered exceptional. According to International Business Times, Benedict was the first pope to retire in seven centuries.
CBS News reports Francis stated that he didn’t dislike being pope, but that he really missed his freedom. “The only thing I’d like to do is to be able to go out one day without anyone recognizing me and go get a pizza,” Francis said, laughing.
At Mass later that day, Francis announced a special Jubilee Year, starting Dec. 8, to focus the church on forgiveness and mercy. A Holy Year [in the Roman Catholic Church] is a period of remission of penal consequences of sin, granted under certain conditions for a year, usually at intervals of 25 years.
CBS Radio News correspondent Anna Matranga reports that “in just two years, Francis’ popularity has come very close to that of Saint John Paul II.” She reports that “a recent poll showed that 9 out of 10 American Catholics approve of him, as do 7 out of 10 Americans of all religions (or none at all). Attendance at Vatican events has soared. In the Philippines in January, Francis presided over the biggest papal event in world history, drawing over 6 million pilgrims to a mass in Manila.”
Pope Francis’ papacy began March 13, 2013. Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires, Argentina, he worked as a chemical technician and a nightclub bouncer before beginning seminary studies. He is a former cardinal and archbishop of Buenos Aries. According to the Catholic Herald, he chose the papal name Francis in honor of Saint Francis of Assisi.
