Pope Francis has quashed rumours that he plans to resign anytime soon but his planned visit next weekend to the Italian city of L'Aquila will underscore the Catholic Church's need to regulate the status of pontiffs who step down instead of ruling for life.
L'Aquila is the burial place of Celestine V, who resigned as pope in 1294 after only five months to return to his life as a hermit, establishing a papal prerogative. Pope Benedict XVI, who in 2013 became the first pontiff in about 600 years to resign, visited L'Aquila four years before stepping down.
