Pope Paul VI wraps his cape around a small boy who has just presented him a bouquet of flowers on behalf of the parish children Photograph: S&G Barratts/EMPICS/PA Archive 13 years before his death, Blessed Paul VI wrote that he should be allowed to resign if he became too ill to carry on Commenting on the letter, Pope Francis said, “We must thank God, who alone guides and saves the church, for having allowed Paul VI to continue until the last day of his life to be father, pastor, master, brother and friend.”
Blessed Paul said he was writing “aware of our responsi-bility before God and with a heart full of reverence and of charity, which unite us to the holy Catho-lic Church, and not unmindful of our evangelical mission to the world.”
“In case of infirmity, which is believed to be incurable or is of long duration and which impedes us from sufficiently exercising the functions of our apostolic ministry; or in the case of another serious and prolonged impediment,” Blessed Paul wrote, he renounced his office “both as bishop of Rome as well as head of the same holy Catholic Church.”
