Pope Francis, showing plans to stay on, starts new Catholic reform process

By Joshua McElwee

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) -Pope Francis approved a new three-year process to consider reforms for the global Catholic Church, the Vatican said on Saturday, in a sign the 88-year-old pontiff plans to continue on as pope despite his ongoing battle with double pneumonia.

Francis has extended the work of the Synod of Bishops, a signature initiative of his 12-year papacy, which has discussed reforms such as the possibility of women serving as Catholic deacons and better inclusion of LGBTQ people in the Church.

The synod, which held an inconclusive Vatican summit of bishops on the future of the Church last October, will now hold consultations with Catholics across the world for the next three years, before hosting a new summit in 2028.

Francis approved the new process for reforms on Tuesday from Rome's Gemelli hospital, where he is being treated, the Vatican said on Saturday.

The pope has been in hospital for more than a month and his prolonged public absence has stoked speculation that he could choose to follow his predecessor Benedict XVI and resign from the papacy.

His friends and biographers have insisted, however, that he has no plans to step down. The approval of a new three-year process indicated he wants to continue on, despite his age and the possibility he might face a long, fraught road to recovery from pneumonia, given his age and other medical conditions.

"The Holy Father ... is helping push the renewal of the Church toward a new missionary impulse," Cardinal Mario Grech, the official leading the reform process, told the Vatican's media outlet. "This is truly a sign of hope."

BRINGING CHURCH 'UP TO DATE'

Francis, who has been pope since 2013, is widely seen as trying to open up the staid global Church to the modern world.

However, the pope's reform agenda has upset some Catholics, including a few senior cardinals. They have accused him of watering down the Church's teachings on issues such as same-sex marriage, and divorce and remarriage.

Massimo Faggioli, a U.S. academic who has followed the papacy closely, said the new reform process is a way for the pope to signal that he is still the leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics.

"Francis' pontificate is not over, and this decision he just made for what happens between now and 2028 will have an effect on the rest of (it)," said Faggioli, a professor at Villanova University.

After last October's inconclusive Vatican summit, which yielded no concrete action on possible reforms, Francis had faced questions of whether his papacy was running out of steam.

Vatican officials had said at the time that Francis was still considering future changes, and was waiting to receive a series of 10 expected reports about possible reforms this June.

The latest medical bulletins from the Vatican on the pope's condition in hospital have said he is improving and is no longer in immediate danger of death. 

They have not said when he will be discharged from hospital.

Well-wishers have been gathering to offer support for Francis outside the hospital each day during the pope's recovery.

Stefania Gianni, an Italian being treated for cancer at the facility, said on Saturday that Francis "has taken great steps to bring the Church up to date with the times".

"He is a great man and a great pope, and the Church still needs him," she said.

(Reporting by Joshua McElwee. Additional reporting by Lavinia Sdoga. Editing by Mark Potter and Aidan Lewis)