VATICAN CITY-- In his last Sunday gift before he resigns, Pope Benedict XVI guaranteed Catholics that he was not abandoning them yet would remain to offer the religion even in his retirement.
Romans, pilgrims and curious visitors packed St. Peter's Square on Sunday for Benedict's second-to-last public look before he steps down on Thursday, the first pope in six centuries to do so willingly.
Reading from equipped remarks as he stood at the home window of the Apostolic Royal residence, Benedict that said he was being called by God "to climb up on the mountain" and to commit himself more to "prayer and mind-calming exercise.".
"This doesn't imply deserting the religion," the pope included, to the applause of the crowd. "On the contrary, if God asks me, this is because I could remain to serve" the religion "with the very same dedication and the exact same passion which I have attempted to do so previously, yet in a way more suitable to my aged and to my toughness.".
Cardinals from all over the world have actually started compiling in Rome to greet Benedict prior to he resigns at 8 p.m. on Thursday. Then, the cardinals will meet to go over when to start the conclave to select his successor.
One participant of the group in St. Peter's Square on Sunday, Jan Cartwright, 61, claimed she had traveled to Rome from Wales. "We have actually come for the rugby, yet we're Catholic, and it is history, isn't it," she stated.
Ms. Cartwright stated she was shocked that the pope had chosen to surrender. "We have the queen," she stated. "No one in the royal family would walk out, they just go on until they die, actually." But she said she appreciated Benedict's choice. "I believe it's a brave thing to do," she claimed. "He's an old man.".
Maria Concetta Campanella from Rome was additionally in the group. "It's a historical minute," she said. "It shows us humbleness. He educates us that we can not sit in our chairs forever, that when the moment is ideal, we have to leave the chair.".
Vito Ugo, an Augustinian monk holding a Brazilian flag, was taking pictures with 2 of his fellow monks, all dressed in lengthy black bathrobes. "We feel terrific feeling to be below," he claimed.
Asked whether he wished the cardinals would elect a South American pope in the conclave, Younger brother Ugo grinned. "If it's exactly what God desires," he pointed out humbly.
