Benedict poised to leave Vatican in last hours as Pope

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Benedict heading to summer papal retreat

CBC News

Posted: Feb 28, 2013 3:45 AM ET

Last Updated: Feb 28, 2013 10:43 AM ET

 

Pope Benedict XVI is scheduled to leave the Vatican for the last time as Pope at 11 a.m. ET, just hours before he will become the first pope to resign as head of the Catholic Church in nearly 600 years.

Benedict will board a helicopter on top of a hill in the Vatican gardens and fly to the papal summer residence at Castel Gandolfo, just outside Rome.

"We expect him to come out of the balcony…at his residence and make one last apperance," CBC's Susan Ormiston said from outside St. Peter's Basilica. "We don't know whether he'll speak or not but the town is very excited."

At exactly 2 p.m. ET, Benedict will become emeritus pope, his Vatican appointees will lose their jobs, and attention will turn to the 115 cardinals who will choose a successor.

Benedict is expected return to live behind the Vatican walls in two to three months, in a monastery being readied for him.

Earlier Thursday, the Pope told cardinals in Vatican City on Thursday that he will pledge his unconditional obedience to the next pontiff.

Delivering an unexpected speech inside the Vatican's frescoed Clementine Hall, Benedict urged the "princes" of the church to set aside their differences as they elect the next pope, urging them to be unified so that the College of Cardinals works "like an orchestra" where "agreement and harmony" can be reached despite diversity. It was his last chance to officially say goodbye to the cardinals, more than half of whom he appointed.

The Pope, wearing his crimson velvet cape and using a cane, said he would pray for the cardinals in coming days as they choose his successor, the 266th leader of the Catholic Church and its 1.2 billion followers.

"Among you is also the future pope, whom I promise my unconditional reverence and obedience," Benedict said in his final audience.

His scheduled return to Vatican City has deepened concerns about the shadow he will cast over the next papacy.

Benedict has tried to address those worries, saying that once retired he would be "hidden from the world."

Ormiston said that with Thursday's comments the Pope was "trying to put down any worries that the Vatican might have that he would be pulling strings from behind closed walls."

And in his final speech in St. Peter's Square on Wednesday, he said he wasn't returning to private life, but rather to a new form of service to the church through prayer.

Marco Politi, an Italian journalist and Vatican expert, said the resignation is a historic turning point for the Catholic Church.

"Here in Rome, the Catholic Church has [had] the legacy of the Roman Empire," he told CBC News. "This way of an old imperial church is fading away."

Benedict will spend the first portion of his retirement at Castel Gandolfo south of Rome. (Google/CBC)

Politi said the cardinals will have a choice between choosing a pope who will be open to reforms or to "defend the trenches of the old tradition."

Cardinal Thomas Collins, the Archbishop of Toronto, Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte, the archbishop emeritus of Montreal, and Cardinal Marc Ouellet of Quebec will be among the senior clergy on hand to choose their next leader.

In all, 115 cardinals under the age of 80 are expected in Rome for the conclave to vote on who should become the next pope; two other eligible cardinals have already said they are not coming, one from Britain and another from Indonesia. Cardinals who are 80 and older can join the college meetings but won't participate in the conclave or vote.

Earlier this week, Benedict gave the cardinals the go-ahead to move up the start date of the conclave — tossing out the traditional 15-day waiting period. But the cardinals won't actually set a date for the conclave until they begin meeting officially Monday.

In Canada, thanksgiving masses are planned at noon across the country to mark the end of Benedict's reign. For instance, 20 bishops from across western Canada and the North are expected in Edmonton.

With files from The Associated Press

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