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Pope Benedict XVI Delivers His Farewell Address to Massive Audience

Feb. 27, 2013 9:26am Billy Hallowell

Pope Benedict XVI Delivers His Final Address to a Massive Crowd

Pope Benedict XVI waves to the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Squareduring his final general audience on February 27, 2013 in Vatican City, Vatican. Credit: Getty Images

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI basked in an emotional sendoff Wednesday from a massive crowd at his final general audience in St. Peter’s Square, recalling moments of “joy and light” during his papacy but also times of difficulty when “it seemed like the Lord was sleeping.”

An estimated 150,000 people, many toting banners saying “Grazie!” (“Thank you!”), jammed the piazza to bid Benedict farewell and hear his final speech as pontiff. In this appointment — which he has kept each week for eight years to teach the world about the Catholic faith — Benedict gave deep thanks to his flock for respecting his decision to retire.

Benedict clearly enjoyed the crowds, taking a long victory lap around the square in an open-sided car and stopping to kiss and bless half a dozen children handed to him by his secretary. A total of 70 cardinals, some tearful, sat in solemn attendance.

But Benedict made a quick exit, foregoing the typical meet-and-greet session that follows the audience; the Vatican has said there were simply too many people who would have wanted to say goodbye.

Given the historic moment, Benedict also changed course and didn’t produce his typical professorial Wednesday catechism lesson. Rather, he made his final public appearance in St. Peter’s a personal one, explaining once again why he was becoming the first pope in 600 years to resign and urging the faithful to pray for his successor.

“To love the church means also to have the courage to take difficult, painful decisions, always keeping the good of the church in mind, not oneself,” Benedict said to thundering applause.

He noted that a pope has no privacy: “He belongs always and forever to everyone, to the whole church.” But the pope promised that in retirement he would not be returning to private life — instead taking on a new experience of service to the church through prayer.

He recalled that when he was elected pope on April 19, 2005, he questioned if God truly wanted it. “It’s a great burden that you’ve placed on my shoulders,” he recalled telling God.

During his eight years as pope, Benedict said, “I have had moments of joy and light, but also moments that haven’t been easy … moments of turbulent seas and rough winds, as has occurred in the history of the church when it seemed like the Lord was sleeping.”

But he said he never felt alone, that God always guided him, and he thanked his cardinals and colleagues for their support and for “understanding and respecting this important decision.”

Under a bright sun and blue skies, the square was overflowing with pilgrims and curiosity-seekers. Those who couldn’t get in picked spots along the main boulevard leading to the square to watch the event on giant TV screens. Some 50,000 tickets were requested for Benedict’s final master class. In the end, the Vatican estimated that 150,000 people flocked to the farewell.

“It’s difficult — the emotion is so big,” said Jan Marie, a 53-year-old Roman in his first years as a seminarian. “We came to support the pope’s decision.”

With chants of “Benedetto!” erupting often, the mood was far more buoyant than during the pope’s final Sunday blessing. It recalled the jubilant turnouts that often accompanied him at World Youth Days and events involving his predecessor, Pope John Paul II.

Benedict has said he decided to retire after realizing that, at 85, he simply didn’t have the “strength of mind or body” to carry on.

“I have taken this step with the full understanding of the seriousness and also novelty of the decision, but with a profound serenity in my soul,” Benedict told the crowd Wednesday.

Benedict will meet Thursday morning with cardinals for a final time, then fly by helicopter to the papal residence at Castel Gandolfo south of Rome.

There, at 8 p.m., the doors of the palazzo will close and the Swiss Guards in attendance will go off duty, their service protecting the head of the Catholic Church over — for now.

Many of the cardinals who will choose Benedict’s successor were in St. Peter’s Square for his final audience. Those included retired Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony, the object of a grass-roots campaign in the U.S. to persuade him to recuse himself for having covered up for sexually abusive priests. Mahony has said he will be among the 115 cardinals voting on who the next pope should be.

Also in attendance Wednesday were cardinals over 80, who can’t participate in the conclave but will participate in meetings next week to discuss the problems facing the church and the qualities needed in a new pope.

“I am joining the entire church in praying that the cardinal electors will have the help of the Holy Spirit,” said Spanish Cardinal Julian Herranz, 82.

Herranz has been authorized by the pope to brief voting-age cardinals on his investigation into the leaks of papal documents that exposed corruption in the Vatican administration.

Vatican officials say cardinals will begin meeting Monday to decide when to set the date for the conclave.

But the rank-and-file faithful in the crowd Wednesday weren’t so concerned with the future; they wanted to savor the final moments with the pope they have known for years.

“I came to thank him for the testimony that he has given the church,” said Maria Cristina Chiarini, a 52-year-old homemaker who traveled by train from Lugo in central Italy with some 60 members of her parish. “There’s nostalgia, human nostalgia, but also comfort, because as a Christian we have hope. The Lord won’t leave us without a guide.”

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Comments (27)

judyaz
Posted on February 28, 2013 at 1:52pm
With light-hearted and respectful humor, I think of Acts 1:9-11 — “As they watched he was lifted up, and a cloud removed him from their sight. As he was going, and as they were gazing intently into the sky, all at once there stood beside them two men in white who said,…’Why stand there looking up into the sky?”…[He] will who has been taken away from you up to heaven, will come in the same way as you have seen him go.”
A Pope hasn’t resigned for many centuries. Yet, we haven’t seen this for 2000 years. But they didn’t have helicopters then.
What a fitting send-off.
God bless you, Your Holiness.

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Verceofreason
Posted on February 28, 2013 at 1:23am
He is still entitled to a lifetime delivery of his Choirboy of the Month package.

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- by faith
  Posted on March 4, 2013 at 2:36pm
  You have a grave stain on your soul and it will rot because you keep talking badly and ignorantly about priests.
  
  Each priest answers a call by God.
  The original 12 were not perfect, and the more than 400,000 in the world today are not perfect.
  
  However, they belong to Jesus. They may be total screwups, but they are Jesus’ screwups.
  Just like I can talk about my family all I want, but you should never say anything negative about them…Jesus can and will deal with “bad Priest”.
  
  Over a 60 year time frame, an average of 99 U.S. based Catholic priest have been credibly accused of sexual abuse. 5,948/60 give an average of 99.133 (BTW: Protestant Churches in America typically receive 260 reports each year)
  
  Currently there are approximately 100 married priests in the United States.
  
  Do you also claim all Catholic priests are married? (equal numbers)
  
  No you probably say Catholics don’t allow priest to get married, and that’s why they’re all pedophiles.
  
  You and Satan hate Catholic priests.
  
  Report this comment
Xylliab_of_the_Znarghh
Posted on February 27, 2013 at 5:31pm
Let not the knob of the portal striketh thee in thine hinder parts as thou dost exit.

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- Quester55
  Posted on February 27, 2013 at 9:37pm
  The old saying must be true, When It’s Hot in the Kitchen, Get out!, So he’s changing his shoes, Don’t really blame him, It’ll be hard for him to RUN all over HELL, when he has those Millions Chasing him for being a FALSE Christ!
  Is he going to stop being a COMMUNIST as well?
  
  Report this comment
John655
Posted on February 27, 2013 at 3:17pm
Have you no shame?

God Bless you Pope Benedict and we beseech thee Holy Spirit to provide us with a new vicar worhty of the times we live in. I pray in the nane of the Father and the Son and the Most Holy Spirit. Amen!

Carry-on

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- john654
  Posted on February 27, 2013 at 4:49pm
  Amen!
  
  Report this comment
- John655
  Posted on February 27, 2013 at 7:04pm
  The “Have you no shame?” Was in reply to a PinkyGeorge comment. That comment seems to have been deleted.
  
  Report this comment
- KickinBack
  Posted on February 27, 2013 at 7:52pm
  Yes, Pinky has been smited.
  
  Report this comment
universalphilos
Posted on February 27, 2013 at 1:01pm
May 15, 1981: “Now is the time of the Anti-Christ. It is becoming more and more prevalent. We tried to explain to you that assassination would be one of their major tools. But remember…there is work to be done, and nothing from either side shall be allowed to interfere with this work. There is peace upon the Earth, shall be brought into unity, from all religions and from all mankind. Join your hands. Forget your differences. We have said this over and over again, yet you have heard us not.
You say unto us, ‘Why should I forgive this one, when they have done such and such to me? Why should I stick out my hand and say, “I forgive you.”’
We shall say unto you these words. This of your Catholic Pope [John Paul II] would forgive his assassin. Could you? Have you reached into the heart and soul of your own development to forgive one another, to love one another, as you would love yourself?…Only in these manners may you rise above that of the Anti-Christ, for the Anti-Christ has no forgiveness because he has no soul, for everything about him and those who would serve him serve but for one purpose….”
The attempted assassination — quite simple, to take over the Roman Catholic Church, to make it a tool. And so it shall be into other world leaders, to make them a tool. It is only part of the whole. We say unto you, come forth and love each other. Come forth and look into each other’s eyes, and hearts and souls, for it is the pathway that the mark cannot be placed upon

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Sharon Rose
Posted on February 27, 2013 at 10:35am
May God bless you, Holy Father. What ever the reason for stepping down, I am sure it is the best for the Church.

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- pinkygeorge
  Posted on February 27, 2013 at 1:26pm
  He probably got caught having sex with the other weirdos at the vatican.
- Caleb-Texas
  Posted on February 27, 2013 at 3:05pm
  @PINKYGEORGE
  
  I wonder what is hurting inside you that makes you make such a hateful comment or whether it just pitiful ignorance or bigotry on display. I challenge you to be more reasonable and if you have any objection against the Pope make your point without such vitriolic hate.
  
  Report this comment
- Colorado7972
  Posted on February 28, 2013 at 1:51am
  Look at the buffoons name pinkygeorge that’s all you need to know to see where he stands.
  
  Report this comment
Exidor
Posted on February 27, 2013 at 9:57am
I’m waiting for the other boot to drop. Something stinks about this whole thing.

I’m thinking he’s bugging out before a huge scandal hits. Pope’s just don’t up an quit.

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- tradcatholicgirl
  Posted on February 27, 2013 at 10:18am
  Exidor,
  
  Perhaps you don’t think they quit because you see the Papacy as a power grab. That once you get it, you would never let go?
  
  You may be viewing this situation through the lens of your own value system.
  
  Maybe that is why it “stinks.”
  
  Report this comment
Locked
Posted on February 27, 2013 at 9:56am
I wish him all the best. I don’t agree with a lot of Catholic dogma (hence why I’m not Catholic), but I think the pope is making the decision he feels is best for himself, his church, and the over 1 billion Catholics worldwide. May his final years be ones of rest and peace.

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- Dudley Do-Right
  Posted on February 27, 2013 at 12:32pm
  LOCKED and GONZO
  
  Your kind words have brought a tear to my eye and touched my heart. May God Bless you both!
  
  Report this comment
- pinkygeorge
  Posted on February 27, 2013 at 1:28pm
  he should be in jail
balij
Posted on February 27, 2013 at 9:47am
The Big Question

Who will Succeed Him???

Potential Candidates for Pope @

http://wallstnews.blogspot.com/2013/02/pope-benedict_11.html

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Gonzo
Posted on February 27, 2013 at 9:41am
I respect the man’s decision. At that age, how effective could he be? Of course I’m not Catholic so all the traditions of the Papacy aren’t ingrained in me, but I would have to think Catholics would feel the same. Enjoy the time you have left Mr. Ratzinger.

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- Caleb-Texas
  Posted on February 27, 2013 at 3:08pm
  Hey Gonzo thanks for the comments. I really appreciate your honesty and perspective…
  
  Report this comment
- walkintruth
  Posted on February 27, 2013 at 6:27pm
  I am Catholic and I think there is something wrong here. The Catholic church has lied to us and will fall shortly.
  
  Report this comment
- tradcatholicgirl
  Posted on February 28, 2013 at 7:22am
  Walk in truth,
  
  You are not really Catholic. You are a CINO. There is a difference.
  
  When you can’t understand that one might do something for someone else unselfishly, then how can you possibly understand the Christ and His Church?
  
  Report this comment
The-Monk
Posted on February 27, 2013 at 9:35am
“In case I don’t see you later, good afternoon, good evening, and good night!”

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- RJJinGadsden
  Posted on February 27, 2013 at 9:50am
  Hi MONK, Sleep tight.
  
  Report this comment
- The-Monk
  Posted on February 27, 2013 at 10:00am
  Hi RJJ,
  
  I should have added…. “What the ex-Pope should have said”. (From The Truman Show)
  
  “In case I don’t see you later, good afternoon, good evening, and good night!”
  
  I’m up for the day.
  
  Report this comment

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