Pope Francis to Slovakian Jesuits: ‘Some people wanted me to die’ amid health problems
Pope Francis address an ecumenical meeting at the apostolic nunciature in Bratislava, Slovakia, Sept. 12, 2021. / Vatican Media.
Vatican City, Sep 21, 2021 / 05:20 am (CNA). In a private meeting with Jesuits in Slovakia on Sept. 12, Pope Francis said that there were people who wanted him to die after he underwent colon surgery in July. During the encounter, a Jesuit priest asked the pope how he was doing, to which he replied: “Still alive, even though some people wanted me to die.” “I know there were even meetings between prelates who thought the pope’s condition was more serious than the official version. They were preparing for the conclave,” he added. “Patience! Thank God, I’m all right.” Pope Francis answered questions from fellow Jesuits in a closed-door meeting in Slovakia’s capital city, Bratislava, during his Sept. 12-15 visit to the country.The trip was his first since being hospitalized on July 4 for an operation to relieve severe stricture of the colon caused by diverticulitis. The three-hour surgery included a left hemicolectomy, the removal of one side of the colon. After the operation, false rumors began to circulate on social media and in online posts that Pope Francis might soon resign, based in part on other unsubstantiated claims that the pope was possibly suffering from a “degenerative” and “chronic” disease.The text of the pope’s private Sept. 12 meeting with Jesuits in Slovakia was published by Jesuit magazine La Civiltà Cattolica on Sept. 21.During the encounter, one priest spoke with Pope Francis about tension in the Catholic Church in Slovakia, saying that some people see Francis as “heterodox,” while others "idealize you.” “We Jesuits try to overcome this division," he said, asking: “How do you deal with people
who look at you with suspicion? ”Pope Francis noted that “there is, for example, a large Catholic television channel that has no hesitation in continually speaking ill of the pope.” “I personally deserve attacks and insults because I am a sinner, but the Church does not deserve them. They are the work of the devil,” he said.The pope added that there were also clerics who had made “nasty comments about me.” “I sometimes lose patience, especially when they make judgments without entering into a real dialogue. I can’t do anything there. However, I go on without entering their world of ideas and fantasies. I don’t want to enter it and that’s why I prefer to preach, preach...” he said. “Some people accuse me of not talking about holiness," he continued. “They say I always talk about social issues and that I’m a communist. Yet I wrote an entire apostolic exhortation on holiness, Gaudete et exsultate.”