VATICAN CITY: He circumnavigated St. Peter’s Square in the popemobile for the last time. He gave his final waves to cheering masses. And most profoundly, Pope Benedict XVI bestowed his valedictory words to the world in a heartfelt, sometimes wistful address that highlighted the price of being a pope — and its rays of happiness.
His eight-year papacy held moments of “joy and light,” at times resembling the boat carrying Peter and the Apostles on the Sea of Galilee, enjoying many days of sun, gentle breezes and abundant fish, Benedict told tens of thousands of people during his general audience, which was moved to a sun-soaked St. Peter’s Square from the usual auditorium to accommodate the crowd.
“There were also moments in which the waters were agitated and the wind contrary,” he said. “The Lord seemed to be sleeping.”
Benedict, 85, resigns today, exiting the papacy at 8 p.m. local time. In the morning, he meets the cardinals who will elect his successor sometime next month. At 5 p.m., a helicopter will fly him to his summer residence of Castel Gandolfo, where he is expected to wave to well-wishers and utter a few words. By 8:01 p.m., he will have the title “pope emeritus.”
Church officials said 150,000 people gathered Wednesday in St. Peter’s Square. They waved flags, applauded and chanted “Benedetto” under a brilliant blue sky. The pope, clad in a white, double-breasted overcoat, spoke to them mainly in Italian but also gave brief remarks in other languages. The popemobile halted several times so its occupant could kiss babies handed up to him.
In the most personal part of his speech, Benedict drove home a central truth for any world-renowned figure, much less a pontiff: privacy does not exist — a message that could be considered a warning to his successor.
Recalling the day he was elected pope on April 19, 2005, Benedict said he took on a forever job.
“He who assumes the ministry of Peter no longer has any privacy,” he said. “He belongs forever and totally to all people, to all the church. The private dimension is totally, so to speak, removed from his life.”
And that will not change, he said, despite the fact that he has given up his ministry and is turning to a life of prayer, without the trips, meetings, receptions and conferences that make up so much of a pope’s life.
“There is no returning to the private,” Benedict said, but he will serve the church “in a new way.”
Stirring the waters of the Benedict years were a contagion of child sexual abuse scandals involving priests, missteps that provoked the anger of some Jews, Muslims and Anglicans, and the leaking of damaging internal Vatican documents. More recently, Italian news reports have said an investigation by three cardinals into the leaked documents has detailed corruption in the Vatican ranks.
Diminished strength
Benedict, the first pope in nearly 600 years to step down voluntarily, repeated the explanation he proffered in making the announcement Feb. 11.
“In these last months, I felt that my strength was diminished,” he said. He asked God to help him make the decision “not for my good but for the good of the church.”
Benedict said he decided to retire after realizing that, at 85, he simply didn’t have the “strength of mind or body” to carry on. He said he took the step fully aware of its seriousness and novelty.
In an Academy Awards-like passage, Benedict also gave thanks to a list of people: his “brother cardinals”; the members of the Vatican Curia, or administrative body; the Holy See’s diplomatic corps; the bishops; and the “ordinary people” who had sent their good wishes.
Many in the square traveled from outside Rome.
“We came to give the pope our support,” said Giovanni Sali, 25, a student with a pierced lip and sunglasses who had arrived from central Italy. “We want him to know we are close to him.”
About 70 cardinals, some of whom had arrived in recent days in anticipation of the conclave to elect a new pope, were seated in the square, rising to join in several minutes of applause at the end of the speech. The cardinals plan to gather Monday to set the date for the conclave to begin. Among them was retired Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony, the object of a grass-roots campaign 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 for the next pope.
“God bless you,” Mahony said when asked by television crews about the U.S. campaign.
Also in attendance Wednesday were cardinals older than 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,” Spanish Cardinal Julian Herranz, 82, said.
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.
After the speech, it was on to those routine meetings with dignitaries that popes hold — but again, freighted with significance because they were the last in Benedict’s pontificate. According to a list provided by the Vatican, the pope met, in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace, the president of Slovakia, Ivan Gasparovic, and officials of the tiny republic of San Marino, the principality of Andorra, the German state of Bavaria (Benedict’s home state) and the mayor of Rome.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.