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The Pope's summer residence at Castel Gandolfo, where Pope Benedict XVI will be temporarily staying

On 11 February 2013, Pope Benedict XVI informed the cardinals gathered in Consistory that he had decided to resign the papacy, for health reasons, effective 28 February 2013. At a little past 5:00 PM, Vatican time, on 28 February 2013, less than three hours before his resignation was to become effective, Benedict left the Vatican by Italian military helicopter, headed for Castel Gandolofo, where he arrived around 15 minutes later at 5:24 PM. He will stay at Castel Gandolfo during the conclave, after which he will permanently retire and live in relative seclusion at Mater Ecclesiae, a former monastery inside Vatican City. (wikipedia)

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A crowd in tears at Benedict’s farewell

By Ella Ide
Agence France-Presse
Friday, March 1st, 2013


HIDDEN FROM WORLD Members of the public and the media wait for Vatican Swiss guards to close the main door of the papal residence in Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome, Thursday, Feb. 28, 2013. Benedict XVI greeted the faithful for the last time as pope on Thursday, telling tearful well-wishers that he is beginning the final stage of his life as “simply a pilgrim,” hours before he becomes the first pontiff in 600 years to resign. AP/ALESSANDRA TARANTINO

CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy—Pope Benedict XVI’s final goodbye before he retires was met with tears and applause in the tiny hilltop town of Castel Gandolfo near Rome Thursday, where thousands had gathered to hear his emotional last words.

“Thank you, thank you for your friendship,” the 85-year old pontiff said as he stepped out onto a balcony of the papal residence here, smiling widely and holding out his arms to the crowd of flag-waving families, priests and pilgrims, who cheered wildly and chanted “Be-ne-detto!”

Cathedral bells rang out to announce the arrival of the soon-to-be former pope, as local residents crowded onto balconies and rooftops surrounding the square of this mediaeval town, which has a bond with the papacy going back centuries, where locals have grown to know and love Benedict.

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“We’ve been privileged to see a different, more humane side to him over the years, and grown to love him,” she said, adding that she had named her eight-year-old daughter Benedetta in honor of the pope.

“Thank you Benedict, we are all with you!” read huge inflatable silver letters strung next to the small parish church, where parish priest Pietro Diletti spoke of the pope he had befriended.

“I’ve met the pope many times, we’ve eaten together, we’ve joked together, and it’s an immense gesture of friendship on his part that he has chosen us for his last goodbye,” said Diletti.

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“He has said he will be invisible to the world, but we’re hoping one day—when all the commotion has died away—we can throw a party for him in the square, and he will sit down and eat with us.”

Benedict will spend the first two months of his retirement here in the papal summer residence perched high on a rocky outcrop with views of a lake and the sea, before withdrawing to a monastery within the grounds of the Vatican.

“It’s a place he’s come to love, an oasis of calm,” Monachesi said, pointing to Benedict’s phrase immortalized in a plaque on the town hall opposite the palace.

It reads: “Here I find everything: a mountain, a lake, I even see the sea… and good people.”

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/

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