Francis Rooney: Pope Benedict Started Papal Retirement Trend

Former U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See Francis Rooney tells Newsmax TV that Pope Benedict XVI started a trend of retirement that Pope Francis will likely follow.

"Pope Francis has hinted at [retirement], and with the longevity that we see now in people and with the intense scrutiny that all public officials are under, it wouldn't surprise me should Pope Francis become ill" that he would retire, Rooney told J.D. Hayworth and Miranda Khan on "America's Forum" Tuesday.

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While "he seems to be in good health now," Pope Francis could "decide — as Pope Benedict did out of an act of humility — that if he can't do the job, it's time to retire and give it to someone who can because the job's a critical value to the world."

Pope Francis recently said in an interview that he shares "the idea of what Benedict did," and that he feels that his "pontificate will be brief — four or five years, even two or three."

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