Pope Benedict Xvi

Statement from Pope Benedict XVI on his resignation The following is a statement issued by Pope Benedict XVI this morning announcing his plan to leave the office by Feb. 28, 2013 Dear Brothers, I have convoked you to this Consistory, not only for the three canonizations, but also to communicate to you a decision of great importance for the life of the Church. After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry.

Pope Benedict XVI, 85, said this morning that he will resign on Feb. 28, and would become the first pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church to do so in nearly 600 years. Benedict announced his decision in Latin during a meeting of Vatican cardinals this morning and said it was because of his age. A conclave to elect a new pope will form before the end of March. "After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths due to an advanced age are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry," he told the cardinals this morning.

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI decried the increasing commercialization of Christmas as he celebrated Christmas Eve Mass, urging the faithful to look beyond the holiday's "superficial glitter" to discover its true meaning. Benedict, 84, presided over the Saturday night service in a packed St. Peter's Basilica, kicking off an intense two weeks of Christmas-related public appearances that will test his stamina amid signs that fatigue is starting to slow him down. The Christmas Eve Mass was moved up to 10 p.m. from midnight several years ago to spare the pope a late night that is followed by an important Christmas Day speech.

Consensus among any group as large and diverse as the nearly two million Roman Catholics in the Philadelphia region would be nearly miraculous. Yet the news Monday that Pope Benedict XVI would resign at the end of February hit one consistent note among the faithful. Shock, and variations thereof. "I was surprised," said Jack Betzal, a lifelong Philadelphia Catholic who gives tours of the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul. "Stunning," said Trenton Bishop David M. O'Connell.

THE FORMER superintendent of schools for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia has been named to the highest pontifical order that can be achieved by a layperson, the Archdiocese announced Thursday. Mary E. Rochford, who resigned in March, was named to the Order of Saint Gregory the Great by Pope Benedict XVI. Rochford had resigned to care for ailing relatives, according to the Archdiocese. - Phillip Lucas

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI celebrated a very Bavarian birthday Monday, marking his 85th with his brother, bishops and a musical band from his native land at the Vatican. Monday's birthday is just the first in a week of milestones for Benedict. He marks the seventh anniversary of his election as pope on Thursday. And April 24 is the anniversary of the start of his pontificate. Despite his age and increasing frailty - he has begun using a cane on occasion - Benedict has quashed speculation of a possible resignation.

Cardinal Georg Sterzinsky, 75, who stepped down as Berlin's archbishop this year, has died. The Berlin Archdiocese said Cardinal Sterzinsky died early Thursday. It did not give details, but the cardinal had long been ill. In February, Pope Benedict XVI accepted his resignation. Cardinal Sterzinsky was born in 1936 in what is now Poland and studied in communist East Germany. He became bishop of Berlin, then a divided city, in 1989 and was later promoted to archbishop and cardinal.

What did people expect from a member of the Hitler Youth? Pope Benedict XVI exercised very bad judgment in saying what he did, even if it was based in fact. (World literature is an enlightening subject to study.) I am, however, amused that the Turks (of all people!) are outraged at Benedict's comments, considering what these people did to the Armenians and Greeks in Northern Turkey not 100 years ago (and the way they took Albania by force back in the 1500s). If I were them, I'd closely guard my glass house.

IN HER OP-ED "The world according to Oriana" (Sept. 22), Christine Flowers pays eloquent tribute to feisty journalist Oriana Fallaci, who wasn't afraid to confront the religious hypocrites of her time in a way that only an atheist can. The violent protests by Islamic fanatics over a speech by Pope Benedict XVI confirm Ms. Flowers' inference that such hypocrisy continues to exist. In response to the pope's appeal for reason and dialogue, unreasonable rage continues to pour out of radical Islam.

With words and hymns of celebration, about 400 people gathered for noon Mass of Thanksgiving yesterday at the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul in Center City in tribute to the election of Pope Benedict XVI. Addressing the Roman Catholic congregation, Auxiliary Bishop Robert P. Maginnis quoted Long Live the Pope, a hymn written by the Right Rev. Hugh P. Henry in the early 1900s in honor of whoever would be elected pope. "Long live the Pope," Bishop Maginnis said. "Long live the shepherd of the flock.

Twitter didn't exist when Pope Benedict XVI was elected in April 2005. But once he announced his resignation, the 24/7 Twitterverse shadowed the transfer of papal power to Pope Francis with an intense wave of irreverence, scandal, info, and, the night of the election itself, fascination. On Feb. 11, Benedict XVI announced he would step down on Feb. 28. No pope had retired on his own since Pope Celestine V in 1294. And no pope had unwittingly created a Super Bowl-like interregnum begging to be filled with a maelstrom of speculation.

ALTHOUGH Santiago Cruz has never been to the Vatican or addressed throngs of faithful followers, he feels a strong connection to Pope Francis. "It's a great opportunity to have a Latino pope at the Vatican. I'm really happy about it," said the 43-year-old Northeast Philadelphia resident. "We'll see if he brings different changes and more culture into the mix. " Cruz and many in Philadelphia's Latino community were still talking Thursday about the down-to-earth pontiff from Argentina who has been charged with moving forward a Roman Catholic Church that has suffered a deep divide.

VATICAN CITY - From "the end of the earth," the Catholic Church found a surprising new leader Wednesday, a pioneer pope from Argentina who took the name Francis, a pastor rather than a manager to resurrect a church and faith in crisis. He is the first pontiff from the New World and the first non-European since the Middle Ages. Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 76, the archbishop of Buenos Aires who has spent nearly his entire career in Argentina, was a fast and fitting choice for the most unpredictable papal succession - start to finish - in at least six centuries.

DURING HIS years as archbishop of Buenos Aires, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio rode a packed, grimy city bus to work - a symbol of his drive to stay rooted in his Jesuit humility and devotion to Argentina's poor. But Thursday morning, the 76-year-old woke up with the Popemobile at his powerful command as Francis - the first pontiff from the Americas, the first Jesuit, and spiritual leader to more than 1.2 billion Roman Catholics. Most experts expect that Pope Francis will steer the Vatican down the center of the sharply divided highway that is modern Catholicism - veering left, for example, on economic issues such as income inequality before swerving to the right on hot-button social issues, such as opposing female priests and both marriage and adoption by gays.

DENNIS RODMAN doesn't like to sit still. The U.S. ambassador to the world - who visited with North Korea's supreme leader Kim Jong Un last month - is off to Rome, where he hopes to get an audience with the new pope. Of course, the cardinals haven't actually elected a new pontiff, but why let details get in the way of a good story. Rodman told TMZ on Tuesday that his "people" are trying to arrange a get-together with whoever succeeds Pope Benedict XVI. "I want to be anywhere in the world that I'm needed," Rodman told TMZ. " . . . I want to spread a message of peace and love throughout the world.

Danielle McMonagle's semester as a communications intern at the Vatican was supposed to be a quiet one. Then her new boss, Pope Benedict XVI, announced his retirement on the day she was to start, and all heaven broke loose. "It's been pretty crazy ever since," the Villanova University junior said Tuesday. Earlier in the day, she had watched as 115 cardinals from around the world filed into the Sistine Chapel to begin choosing Benedict's successor. But McMonagle, of Moorestown, was no mere face in the crowd at St. Peter's Square.

VATICAN CITY - As tens of thousands of people in St. Peter's Square gasped in excitement, Gloria Hudock of Peters, Pa., strained to see the smoke pouring out of the chimney of the Sistine Chapel against the black night sky. No successor to Pope Benedict XVI was elected on the first ballot of the conclave. Smoke rose at 7:42 p.m. "It's definitively black," she said, on observation aided by several Jumbotrons on which Vatican television broadcast a well-lit image of the chimney. Hudock, with her husband, Gabe, and their 13-year-old son Stephen, happened to be visiting their older son, John, who is studying at Duquesne University's Rome campus, and planned to keep a smoke watch.

CARDINAL Justin Rigali, the former archbishop of Philadelphia, is the only papal elector with strong local ties - but his role in the conclave may not be limited to a single tally. Rigali, a Los Angeles native, is playing a big role in unifying the American cardinals and unlocking their potential influence over who will be the next pope. Despite being the second-largest national group in the conclave for decades, Americans have not traditionally wielded much clout behind the closed doors of the Sistine Chapel - in part because they rarely voted as a bloc.

WILL THE next pope be European, African or North American? Will he be in his 50s or 70s? Will he carry an iPhone or an Android? One-hundred-fifteen cardinals gather Tuesday in the Sistine Chapel to begin the arduous process of answering these questions as they choose a new leader for more than 1 billion Roman Catholics. Pope Benedict XVI's decision to become the first pope in nearly 600 years to resign was historic. But the papal conclave's decision on his successor could be an even more pivotal moment in church history.