Resignation 'has not crossed my mind,' Pope says (Vatican News)

Pope Francis said that resignation “has not crossed my mind,” and added that he thinks a Pontiff should serve for life, at a February 2 meeting with Jesuits in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Pope said that although Pope Benedict XVI “had the courage to do it” because of declining health, “this does not at all mean that resigning Popes should become, let’s say, a fashion, a normal thing.” He said that “I believe that a Pope’s ministry is for life.”

At the same meeting, the Pontiff told the Jesuits in the Congo that while their country is torn by a bloody conflict, “the whole world is at war.” He went on to say that “the main problem is the production of weapons.”

In a separate meeting on February 4 with Jesuits in South Sudan, the Pope answered a query about this spiritual life, saying that in addition to celebrating Mass and the Divine Office, he “sometimes prays the Rosary and sometimes prays while meditating on the Gospel.”