The changes Francis brought to the papacy were more than skin deep. He opened the church to the outside world in ways none of his predecessors had done before.

The Vatican has detailed laws and rituals to ensure the transfer of power when a pope dies or resigns, but not when he is sick

Gandhi’s Scant Garb Bars Audience with Pope.” So read the headline of a New York Times report, from December 13, 1931, that the Vatican had cancelled a meeting between Pius XI and “the Indian nationalist leader” because the Pope thought he might be criticized “if he received the visitor in his usual scanty clothing.

Over the weekend, the Vatican announced serious complications in the recovery of Pope Francis. The 88-year-old pontiff, who has been hospitalized for 10 days, is battling pneumonia and on Sunday also appeared to be in the early stages of kidney failure, the Vatican said.

And the postulator of St. John Paul II's sainthood cause, Msgr. Slawomir Oder, in 2010 published the letters Pope John Paul prepared in 1989 and in 1994 offering the College of Cardinals his resignation in case of an incurable disease or other condition that would prevent him from fulfilling his ministry.