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Pope Francis would leave the Vatican but stay in Rome if he resigned
Pope Francis said he would not stay on at the Vatican if he were to step down. He assured that he would also not return to Argentina, where he was born.
The Pope said he is not currently considering resigning. "No, certainly not," the 85-year-old pope told Mexican-US TV channel Televisa Univision, adding that he would also not return to Argentina, where he was born.
If he stepped down, he would then be bishop emeritus of Rome, he said, and would continue living and serving the faithful in Rome. He said: "If I live on, I would like something like this.”
Unlike his predecessor Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Francis ruled out calling himself pope emeritus. However, he is not considering resigning at present, he said.
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He praised Benedict XVI, who resigned his pontificate in 2013 and continues to live in the Vatican. The pope said that "The example that Pope Benedict gave us was great.”
Pope Francis, born 17 December 1936, is the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 2013.
Francis is the first pope to be a member of the Society of Jesus, the first from the Americas, the first from the Southern Hemisphere, and the first pope from outside Europe since Gregory III, a Syrian who reigned in the 8th century.
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