Pope Francis’ (exceedingly) busy return to work 

At 87, Pope Francis is gearing up for an intense few weeks, including his longest and most distant trip abroad since his election in 2013. Here’s a rundown of the Argentine Pontiff's major upcoming events.

From September 2 to 13, Pope Francis will make the 45th foreign trip of his pontificate. It will be the longest and most distant (12 days, 9,000 miles) taken by the Argentine pope since his election in 2013. He is scheduled to visit four countries: Indonesia, East Timor, Singapore, and Papua New Guinea. With this last country, the current head of the Catholic Church will be visiting Oceania for the first time, nearly 9,000 miles from Rome, a record for him. 

Since his visit to Canada in 2022, the pontiff has also held the trophy for the oldest sitting pope to travel. His health seems to be better than it was last winter. However, his schedule during his journey — as has been the case for several years — will allow him time to rest and recover his strength. Nevertheless, the trips are always grueling, with the time change complicating an intense schedule of public addresses, liturgies, and meetings.

This will not be too much to ask, given the difficult schedule: 44 hours of flying — including four by helicopter over Papua New Guinea — covering almost 20,000 miles in seven flights, and delivering 16 speeches and homilies.

In the Italian capital, many observers expect Pope Francis to convene a consistory soon to create a new group of cardinals. At present, the college comprises 124 prelates entitled to vote in the event of a conclave. But by the end of the year, four more cardinals will have reached the age of 80, and will therefore no longer be able to elect a successor to the South American pontiff.

With the passage of time, the theoretical ceiling of 120 cardinal electors set by Paul VI has become a lower limit. It’s likely that Pope Francis will not wait to fall below this bar to reinforce the college's numbers. A renowned Vatican scholar and long-time friend of the Argentine pope, Gerard O'Connell, revealed in a recent interview that Francis did indeed plan to organize a consistory before the end of the year.

While some may feel tempted to make predictions, we should remember that the pontiff is the sole decision-maker, and that he has often made surprise decisions in the past. For example, he has partly broken with the tradition of "cardinal seats," which gave the biretta —the famous red square hat — almost automatically to the bishops of certain very large dioceses. Today, for example, Milan, Venice, Naples, Turin, Krakow, Paris, Dublin, Berlin, and Los Angeles have no cardinal. 

Francis has also often made very personal choices. The example of the young Italian Giorgio Marengo, created cardinal in 2022, is revealing. A missionary in Mongolia since the early 2000s, he heads a church with just 1,400 faithful. 

After his trip to Asia-Oceania at the beginning of September, Pope Francis will be making a kind of geographical and cultural leap when he visits Luxembourg and Belgium from September 26 to 29. In these two countries at the heart of Europe, the Catholic Church once played a central role. Over the past few decades, however, they have been facing a wave of secularization. 

During his trip, which will be marked by the 600th anniversary of the Catholic University of Leuven, the Pope is expected to reflect on what it means to be Catholic in a secularized society. In his speeches to the authorities, he may also raise the issue of the end of life, since euthanasia has already been legalized in both Luxembourg and Belgium. The issue of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church will also be a topic to address during the Pope's visit. In Belgium, the pontiff is already scheduled to meet victims in private. 

Finally, with a short stopover in Luxembourg, the Argentine pontiff will honor the diocese of Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, one of the main architects of the Synod on Synodality and a loyal friend of the Pope.

In Belgium, the Pope will meet with an episcopate making waves on sensitive issues such as the female diaconate and the ordination of married men, but with a less frontal approach than that of the Germans, who have entered into an arm wrestling match with Rome.  

Next October, over 450 participants (cardinals, bishops, priests, and lay men and women) will gather once again in Rome to try to bring to fruition the ecclesial project launched by the Pope in 2021 around the official theme: "For a synodal Church. Communion, participation, mission." After months of local and then continental consultations, since October 2023 the Church has been reflecting at global level on how to become more welcoming and participatory, and less clerical. In this respect, the presence and vote of lay people at this assembly, usually composed only of bishops, is intended to be a sign of an institution that is already more inclusive. 

At the end of October, for their final session in Rome, the members of the Synod will be asked to put forward their proposals to the Pope. While the question of the female diaconate has been dropped, the Synod is expected to insist on the need to promote women in other ways. It could also propose instituted ministries for lay men and women, notably that of "listening and accompanying." The question of allowing lay people to preach at Mass is also on the table. Lastly, the Synod wishes to emphasize the need for greater transparency in the Church's decision-making and management processes, both at pastoral levels and with regard to sexual and financial abuse. 

It should be noted, however, that last March, Pope Francis chose to entrust ten working groups with a large number of themes. These groups are due to deliver their conclusions in 2025, after the close of the Synod.

In Rome, the Jubilee 2025 is on everyone's mind, but mainly because of the construction sites that have been covering the city for weeks now. In order to welcome more than 30 million visitors for this ordinary jubilee — which takes place every 25 years — the Eternal City has embarked on a policy of major works with uncertain deadlines.

Visiting Rome's City Hall in early June, Pope Francis sought to offer reassurance. "The enormous influx of pilgrims, tourists, and migrants into the city [...] could be seen as an aggravation, a burden," he said. But, he added, Rome's problems are "the flip side of its greatness" and can become "an opportunity for development: civil, social, economic, cultural."

On December 24, Pope Francis, who will have celebrated his 88th birthday a week earlier, will open the Holy Door in St. Peter's Basilica. Following in his footsteps, the faithful the world over will be invited to set out "in search of the meaning of life," explained the Pope in the Jubilee Bull of Indiction. 

A total of 35 events will be organized in Rome throughout the year: a jubilee of families, of youth, of priests, the sick, politicians, athletes, prisoners, etc. That's the equivalent of a marathon for a pope who also plans to travel to Turkey to celebrate the 1,700th anniversary of the Nicene Ecumenical Council.