After canceling a trip to Africa and scheduling an unprecedented conference of cardinals, Pope Francis has fueled rumors that he may quit.
The 85-year-old pontiff, who has been hobbled by knee problems and forced to use a wheelchair in recent weeks, postponed a July trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan last week.
He also announced an extraordinary intention to host a consistory to designate new cardinals during the Vatican's holiday month, as well as meetings to guarantee that his changes are carried out.
The extraordinary consistory will take place on August 27, during a slack summer month at the Catholic headquarters, to appoint 21 new cardinals, 16 of whom will be under the age of 80, making them able to elect his successor in a future conclave.
Since his election as Pope in 2013, the Argentine pontiff has appointed 83 cardinals in an effort to mold the Catholic Church's future, in part to oppose Europe's historically strong influence and to represent his beliefs.
Francis will then go to L'Aquila on August 28 to visit the grave of Celestine V, the first pope to resign from the papacy in the 13th century.
He then participates in two days of deliberations with the world's cardinals, many of whom are meeting their peers for the first time, on the reform of the Roman Curia, which Francis announced in March with the publication of a new constitution.
Francis' shake-up of the Roman Curia aims to return the Church to its pastoral roots, allowing lay Catholics to participate. Among other measures, Francis appoints new heads of Vatican agencies and establishes a dicastery dedicated to charitable activity.
The changes have sparked a flurry of conjecture regarding his future plans, the most extreme of which is that he is intending to resign.
A pope's resignation seemed nearly impossible until Benedict XVI resigned in 2013, citing poor physical and mental health as the reason.
Francis himself told reporters in 2014, a year after being chosen to succeed Benedict, that if his health prevented him from performing his duties as pope, he would consider stepping down as well.
'He (Benedict) opened a door,' the pontiff stated at the time, referring to retiring popes.
Francis joked about his knee at a closed-door meeting in May, according to numerous Italian media outlets. However, Vatican officials do not believe Francis is close to giving up the papal keys.
'The bulk of those in the pope's entourage don't truly believe in the likelihood of a resignation,' one insider told AFP.
Rumors within the insular Roman Curia - the Catholic Church's powerful governing body - are nothing new, according to Italian Vatican scholar Marco Politi, and are often fueled by those with an interest.
'These rumors are fueled by the pope's detractors, who are solely interested in seeing Francis go,' he told AFP.
According to the Vatican, the pontiff is still scheduled to travel to Canada at the end of July, and he continues to get injections in his knee and physical treatment.
Francis had one of his lungs partly removed when he was a toddler. He now has periodic sciatic nerve discomfort in addition to his knee problem.
Last year, when Francis underwent colon surgery, rumors of his resignation began to circulate, prompting him to tell a Spanish radio station that the thought 'hadn't even entered my mind.'
'At this time, it's a question of being realistic and not hysterical,' Politi remarked of the newest resignation rumors.
He added it was "difficult to envisage Francis resigning" while the Synod of Bishops is still going on, with a completion date of 2023. The Synod of Bishops is a significant undertaking for Francis, with the goal of studying how the Church may go ahead in a more inclusive fashion.
'Preposterous' conjectures regarding the pope's health and intentions, according to Alberto Melloni, a professor of Christianity and secretary of the John XXIII Foundation for Religious Sciences in Bologna.
'There is a need to understand and guess about these things, but there is little to say,' he added.