Pope Francis has a pre-signed resignation letter stored with a top aide should he be unable to fulfill his duties, he told a Spanish newspaper this weekend.
“I have already signed my resignation,” the pontiff, who turned 86 on Saturday, told ABC, a national daily newspaper in Madrid.
Francis said he signed the document in 2013, when Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone was the Vatican’s secretary of state.
“I signed it and told him, ‘In case of impediment for medical reasons or what do I know, here is my resignation.