Pope Benedict XVI’s final weekly public audience at Vatican City

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Masses of pilgrims queued to enter St. Peter’s Square to hear Pope Benedict XVI’s final weekly public audience in Vatican City, Vatican on Wednesday. The Pontiff attended his last weekly public audience before stepping down tomorrow. The weekly event, which would normally be held in a vast auditorium in winter, was moved outdoors to St. Peter’s Square so more people can attend. Pope Benedict XVI had been the leader of the Catholic Church for eight years and is the first Pope to retire since 1415. He cites ailing health as his reason for retirement and will spend the rest of his life in solitude away from public engagements.

Pope speaks of “rough seas” of papacy at emotional farewell
Philip Pullella | Reuters
9:56 a.m. EST, February 27, 2013

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Benedict bid an emotional farewell at his last general audience on Wednesday, acknowledging the “rough seas” that marked his papacy “when it seemed that the Lord was sleeping.”

In an unusually public outpouring for such a private man, he alluded to some of the most difficult times of his papacy, which was dogged by sex abuse scandals, leaks of his private papers and reports of infighting among his closest aides.

“Thank you, I am very moved,” Benedict told a cheering crowd of more than 150,000 people in St Peter’s Square a day before he becomes the first pope to step down in some six centuries.

He said he had great trust in the Church’s future, that his abdication was for the good of the Church and asked for prayers for cardinals choosing his successor at a time of crisis.

The Vatican said the address, repeatedly interrupted by applause and cries of “Benedict, Benedict” – was the last by the pope, who as of Thursday evening will have the title “pope emeritus.”

“There were moments of joy and light but also moments that were not easy … there were moments, as there were throughout the history of the Church, when the seas were rough and the wind blew against us and it seemed that the Lord was sleeping,” he said.

When he finished the crowd, which spilled over into surrounding streets and included many of the red-hatted cardinals who will elect his successor in a closed doors conclave next month, stood to applaud.

“I took this step in the full knowledge of its gravity and rarity but with a profound serenity of spirit,” he said, as people in the crowd wave supportive banners and national flags.

Loving the Church meant, “having the courage to take difficult and anguished choices, always having in mind the good of the church and not oneself,” he said.

The pope says he is too old and weak to continue leading a Church beset by crises over child abuse by priests and a leak of confidential Vatican documents showing corruption and rivalry among Vatican officials.

He said he was not “coming down from the cross” but would serve the Church through prayer.

Some of those who have faulted Benedict for resigning have pointed to the late Pope John Paul, who said he would “not come down from the cross” despite his bad health because he believed his suffering could inspire others.

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