Pope Francis has no intention of resigning as he feels his health is good enough to allow him to carry on, he says in a new book whose excerpts were published by Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper.
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"This is a distant hypothesis, because I don't have reasons serious enough to make me think about giving up," Francis was quoted as saying in a Life - My Story in History, a book based on an interview with the pontiff due out in Italy on March 19.
Francis is 87 and has been increasingly frail in recent years, using a wheelchair or cane to move around and recently suffering from what have been described as bouts of bronchitis or colds that have led him to limit his public speaking.
Nevertheless, in the book he reassures about his condition.
"Thank the Lord, I enjoy good health and, God willing, there are many projects still to be realised," he said, repeating that he would consider quitting only in case of a "serious physical impediment".
Francis' predecessor Benedict XVI was the first pope to resign in about 600 years, citing the strains of old age. He quit in February 2013, aged 85, and went on to live for almost 10 more years, dying at the age of 95.
Australian Associated Press
