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| Pope Benedict XVI greets faithful from his summer residence of Castel Gandolfo, the scenic town where Pope Benedict XVI will spend his first post-Vatican days and made his last public blessing as pope,Thursday, Feb. 28, 2013. |
CASTEL GANDOLFO,
Italy (AP) -- Benedict XVI left the Catholic Church in unprecedented
limbo Thursday as he became the first pope in 600 years to resign,
capping a tearful day of farewells that included an extraordinary pledge
of obedience to his successor.
As bells
tolled, two Swiss Guards standing at attention at the papal palace in
Castel Gandolfo shut the thick wooden doors shortly after 8 p.m.,
symbolically closing out a papacy whose legacy will be most marked by
the way it ended - a resignation instead of a death.
Benedict,
who will spend his first two months of retirement inside the palace
walls, leaves behind an eight-year term shaped by struggles to move the
church beyond clerical sex abuse scandals and to reawaken Christianity
in an indifferent world - efforts his successor will now have to take
up.
For the time being, the governance of the
Catholic Church shifts to Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the camerlengo, or
chamberlain, who along with the College of Cardinals will guide the
church and make plans for the conclave to elect the 266th leader of the
world's 1.2 billion Catholics.
One of
Bertone's first acts was to lock the papal apartment inside the Vatican.
In another task steeped in symbolism, he will ensure that Benedict's
fisherman's ring and seal are destroyed.
On
Benedict's last day, the mood was vastly different inside the Vatican
than at Castel Gandolfo. At the seat of the popes, Benedict's staff
tearfully bade the pontiff good-bye in scenes of dignified solemnity. A
more lively atmosphere reigned in the countryside, with well-wishers
jamming the hilltop town's main square shouting "Viva il Papa!" (Long
live the pope!) and wildly waving the yellow and white flags of the Holy
See.
"I am simply a pilgrim beginning the
last leg of his pilgrimage on this Earth," Benedict told the cheering
crowd in his final public words as pope.
It
was a remarkable bookend to a papacy that began on April 19, 2005 with a
similarly meek speech delivered from the loggia overlooking St. Peter's
Square, where the newly elected Benedict said he was but a "simple
humble worker in the vineyard of the Lord."
Over
eight years, Benedict tried to set the church on a more traditional
course, convinced that all the ills afflicting it - sexual abuse,
dwindling numbers of priests and empty pews - were a result of a
misreading of the reforms of the Second Vatican Council.
His
successor is likely to follow in his footsteps given that the vast
majority of the 115 cardinals who will elect the next pope were
appointed by Benedict himself and share his conservative bent.
For
the most part, his cardinals have said they understood Benedict's
decision. But Sydney Cardinal George Pell caused a stir on Thursday by
saying it was "slightly destabilizing" - a rare critique of a pope by
one of his cardinals.
Benedict's journey into
retirement began with a final audience with his cardinals Thursday
morning, where he sought to defuse concerns about his future role and
the possible conflicts arising from the peculiar situation of having
both a reigning pope and a retired one living side-by-side inside the
Vatican.
"Among you is also the future pope, whom I today promise my unconditional reverence and obedience," Benedict told the cardinals.
Benedict's
decision to live at the Vatican in retirement, be called "emeritus
pope" and "Your Holiness" rather than revert back to "Joseph Ratzinger"
and wear the white cassock associated with the papacy has deepened
concerns about the shadow he might cast over the next papacy.
Benedict
has tried to address those worries over the past two weeks, saying that
once retired he would be "hidden from the world" and living a life of
prayer. On Thursday he took a step further with his own public pledge to
place himself entirely under the authority of the new pope.
Benedict
also gave a final set of instructions to the "princes" of the church
who will elect his successor, urging them to be united as they huddle to
choose the next pope.
"May the College of
Cardinals work like an orchestra, where diversity - an expression of the
universal church - always works toward a higher and harmonious
agreement," he said.
It was seen as a clear
reference to the deep internal divisions that have come to the fore in
recent months following the leaks of sensitive Vatican documents that
exposed power struggles and allegations of corruption inside the
Vatican.
The audience inside the Apostolic
Palace was as unique as Benedict's decision to quit, with the pope,
wearing his crimson velvet cape and using a cane, bidding farewell to
his closest advisers and the cardinals themselves bowing to kiss his
fisherman's ring for the last time.
A few
hours later, Benedict's closest aide, Monsignor Georg Gaenswein, wept by
his side as they took their final walk down the marbled halls of the
Apostolic Palace to their motorcade that took them to the helipad at the
top of a hill in the Vatican gardens.
As
bells tolled in St. Peter's and in church towers across Rome, Benedict
took off in a helicopter that circled St. Peter's Square, where banners
reading "Thank You" were held up skyward so he could see. He flew to
Castel Gandolfo, where he has spent his summers enjoying the quiet
gardens overlooking Lake Albano.
Around the
time he took off, the Vatican sent a final tweet from Benedict's Twitter
account, (at)Pontifex. "Thank you for your love and support. May you
always experience the joy that comes from putting Christ at the centre
of your lives."
Soon afterward, that tweet and all Benedict's previous ones were deleted and the profile was changed to read "Sede Vacante."
And
a few seconds past 8 p.m., the soft click of the 20-foot-high wooden
door at Castel Gandolfo closed, signaling the end of the papacy. A
Vatican official was then seen taking down the Holy See's white and
yellow flag from the Castel Gandolfo residence.
"We
have the pope right here at home," said Anna Maria Togni, who walked
two kilometers (one mile) from the outskirts of Castel Gandolfo to
witness history. "We feel a tenderness toward him."
Benedict
set his resignation in motion Feb. 11, when he announced that he no
longer had the "strength of mind and body" do to the job. It was the
first time that a pope had resigned since Pope Gregory XII stepped down
in 1415 to help end a church schism.
In the
weeks since Benedict's announcement, speculation has mounted whether
other factors were to blame. By the time his final day came around
though, Benedict seemed perfectly serene with his decision.
The
Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said the pope's pledge
to obey his successor was in keeping with his effort to "explain how he
intends to live this unprecedented situation of an emeritus pope."
"He
has no intention of interfering in the position or the decisions or the
activity of his successor," Lombardi said. "But as every member of the
church, he says fully that he recognizes the authority of the supreme
pastor of the church who will be elected to succeed him."
The
issue of papal obedience is important for Benedict. In his last legal
document, he made new provisions for cardinals to make a formal, public
pledge of obedience to the new pope at his installation Mass, in
addition to the private one they traditionally make inside the Sistine
Chapel immediately after he is elected.
The
Rev. Thomas Reese, author of "Inside the Vatican," a guide to the
Vatican bureaucracy, welcomed Benedict's similarly public pledge,
saying: "There is room in the church for only one pope and his pledge of
obedience shows that Benedict does not want to be used by anyone to
undermine the authority of the new pope."
He said he would have preferred Benedict to go back to his given name and eschew the white of the papacy.
"Symbols are important in the church," he said.
