Resignation

AFTER WHAT sources say was a tenure marked by disagreements with Mayor Nutter, Ed Covington is out as head of the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority. Covington told staff members the news Friday morning, sources said, and he submitted his resignation to the PRA board. Sources said that Nutter was not pleased with Covington's work performance or management and that Covington often clashed with the administration. When asked if Covington had been pressured to resign, mayoral spokesman Mark McDonald said.

    Chris Brown 's Community Servicegate is becoming messier by the day. Brown is accused of not completing the 180 days of service he was ordered to do as part of his plea deal in the Rihanna assault case. Now the New York Daily News reports that the cop who certified that Brown did complete the service - Richmond, Va., police chief Bryan Norwood - has resigned. Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Mary Murray last week accused Norwood of failing to properly supervise Brown.

Pope Benedict XVI's surprise announcement Monday that he was stepping down as leader of the Roman Catholic Church may prove the signature event of his eight-year pontificate. Benedict, a theological conservative and church traditionalist, took a step that a more moderate pope might not have dared: handing over the scepter of papal infallibility to someone yet to be chosen, something no pope had done in six centuries. The 85-year-old Benedict has told confidants he will revert to his former status as a cardinal and reassume his birth name, Joseph Ratzinger.

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.

LONDON - Citing failing strength of "mind and body," Pope Benedict XVI stunned his closest aides and more than one billion Catholics by resigning Monday, becoming the first pope to do so in nearly 600 years and ending the tenure of a formidable theologian who preached a gospel of conservative faith to a fast-changing world. Keeping with his reputation as a traditionalist, Pope Benedict delivered his resignation - effective Feb. 28 - in Latin, to a private church body in Vatican City.

Pope Benedict XVI's decision, announced Monday, that he would step down as spiritual leader of the Roman Catholic Church may prove the signature moment of his eight-year pontificate. His credentials as a theological conservative and church traditionalist have allowed him to take a nearly unprecedented step that a more moderate Pope might not have dared: to hand over the scepter of papal infallibility to someone yet to be chosen, and then do recede into the background as no pope has done for centuries.

The regular 7:30 mass this morning at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul on Race Street was anything but routine. Those attending discovered not only that Pope Benedict XVI won't be coming to Philadelphia as planned in 2015, but that he is resigning as pontiff on Feb. 28. Rev. G. Dennis Gill told parishioners during mass the news of Benedict's resignation was "quite shocking. " But Gill called the announcement a "courageous decision" and prayed for Catholics to remember the pope in their prayers.

On Feb. 28, Pope Benedict XVI will become the first pope to resign in almost 600 years. That's not just tradition - it's dogma. The Washington Post cited a theological expert in explaining, "Most modern popes have felt that resignation is unacceptable except in cases of an incurable or debilitating disease - that paternity, in the words of Paul IV, cannot be resigned. " But Benedict's shocking resignation is even more curious compared to the handful of others who have left the powerful office willingly.

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.