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Adviser to Pope Francis calls resignation rumors ‘cheap soap opera’

In an interview published June 8, Cardinal Óscar Andrés Rodríguez Mara­diaga dismissed rumors circulating in the media that the pope might resign as nothing more than “a cheap soap opera.”

According to Rodríguez Maradiaga, who advises the pope within the Council of Cardinals, news reports suggesting Pope Francis’s physical decline will soon lead to a new conclave are “fake news” perpetrated by outlets located primarily in the United States, where, he added, the pope notoriously faces “strong opposition.”