Pope bids farewell to papacy

01 March, 2013

Pope Benedict XVI, 85, held his last audience in St Peter's Square on February 28 before tens of thousands of pilgrims and bid farewell to papacy saying that he resigned in full awareness of and profound serenity of spirit and would continue to accompany the Church with prayer and reflection.

Benedict went around the Vatican plaza in "popemobile" waving to the crowd of more than 100,000 gathered to witness the pope's last public event with banners "Benedict, we'll miss you!".

He also met with cardinals on his last day as pontiff and promised his 'unconditional reverence and obedience' to his successor. The Cardinals are already gathering at the Vatican to elect the next Pope. "The Lord gave us days of sun and of light breeze, days in which the fishing was good. There were also moments when there were stormy waters and headwinds," the Pope said while summing up his tenure.

In the evening, Benedict left the Vatican in a helicopter to papal residence of Castel Gandolfo. In retirement, he will still be addressed as "Your Holiness Benedict XVI" with the title 'emeritus pope'. Thus ends Benedict's eight-year pontificate, following his historic resignation that stunned the world.

During his papacy, Benedict XVI had stressed the fundamental Christian values and criticized gay marriages and abortions. He had once said, "The various forms of the dissolution of matrimony today, like free unions, trial marriages and going up to pseudo-matrimonies by people of the same sex, are rather expressions of an anarchic freedom that wrongly passes for true freedom of man." He will be known for his efforts to tackle the issue of homosexuality within the Church and the wider world.