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A difficult papacy — Pope Francis turns 85
Christoph Strack, Deutsche Welle
Monday, December 20, 2021
Pope Benedict, now 94, retired at age 85. Not Francis. When he had to undergo surgery this summer it was weeks before he acknowledged the seriousness of the operation. When he did, it was in his typically earnest yet good-natured and chatty style. Pope Francis represents a great, difficult, and strange papacy in a structurally decaying Church.