Pontiff approves three-year Catholic reform project

Vatican City — 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 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 towards 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.”

Reuters