2013-02-28 Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) “The Church is in the world but not of the world and it is a living body”, therefore it is not an institution designed and conceived according to pre-set plans, but of God. Wednesday’s audience is proof of this, it has shown the “awakening of the Church in souls”.
Below please find a Vatican Radio translation of the Holy Father’s words to the College of Cardinals Thursday morning:

Independent Catholic News

This afternoon, shortly after 5pm, (6pm GMT) Benedict XVI left the Vatican for the last time as Supreme Pontiff. A few moments earlier, in the San Damaso Courtyard of the Vatican Apostolic Palace, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, SDB, secretary of State of His Holiness, and other members of that dicastery bid him farewell. In full military regalia, the Swiss Guard troops paid him homage. Also present were Cardinal Agostino Vallini, vicar general of Rome, and Cardinal Angelo Comastri, vicar general of His Holiness for Vatican City. Many of the workers of the Vatican City State, with their families, were also in attendance and greeted the Pope with warm applause.

Independent Catholic News 27th February 2013

Pope Benedict XVI has just presided over his the final General Audience of his pontificate today in St Peter’s Square. An English translation follows.

Venerable Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Priesthood!

Distinguished Authorities!Dear brothers and sisters!

Thank you for coming in such large numbers to this last General Audience of my pontificate.

The Tablet
In his final general audience Pope Benedict XVI this morning admitted that his pontificate had difficult moments when “the Lord seemed to sleep” but expressed the assurance that despite “rough seas” God would not let the barque of Peter sink.

Speaking to hundreds of thousands of well-wishers packed into a sunny St Peter’s Square, the Pope gave a highly personal message in Italian, and said that he had made the decision to step down, after much prayer, “in full awareness of its severity and also its novelty, but with a deep peace of mind”. He said he had acted for the good of the Church.

The Tablet
Pope Benedict XVI will still be called “Your Holiness” and will continue to wear white papal vestments after he has resigned, the Vatican confirmed today.

Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi told a press conference this morning that Pope Benedict’s full title after his resignation takes effect will be Roman Pontiff Emeritus or His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Emeritus.

He will wear a white cassock, but not the small white cape he uses as Pope, nor the red papal shoes.

Father Patrick Peyton embarked on a ‘Rosary Crusade’ seventy years ago, addressing around 28 million people in some 40 countries and bringing on board top Hollywood Stars to help spread the message that “the family that prays together stays together”.

The Tablet
Pope Benedict XVI has changed the rules of the conclave that will elect his successor, allowing the College of Cardinals to bring forward the start date if all the cardinal electors arrive in Rome before the usual 15-day transition between pontificates.

The Tablet
The Vatican’s representative in Syria has likened the inaction of the international community in the face of the country’s ongoing bloodshed to the behaviour of Pontius Pilate.

Archbishop Mario Zenari, who painted a hellish picture of the human cost of the conflict, said it was urgent to “force the sides to find a negotiated and peaceful solution to the conflict”.

The Irish Catholic
A deadly killer is stalking Ireland: one that strikes at the heart of each and every parish and community.
A new cross-border report on suicide shows the rate among young people on the island of Ireland is one of the highest in Europe.
An estimated 165 teenagers and young men took their own lives in the Republic in 2011, and 72 teenagers and young men took their own lives in the Northring the same year.
The high numbers in both jurisdictions coincide with the economic downturn and rising levels of unemployment. Over the past ten years men have been five times more likely to take their own lives than women.
There can be no quick-fix solutions to tackling the very grave statistics. But neither is there any place for inertia or ambivalence.

MYTH
WOMEN DIE BECAUSE OF IRELANDS PRO-LIFE LAWS ON ABORTION

TRUTH

IRELAND IS THE SAFEST PLACE IN THE WORLD FOR PREGNANT WOMEN

Ireland has one of the lowest rates of maternal mortality in the world, a fact repeatedly confirmed by the UN World Health Organisation. Irish law recognises and respects the right to life of the unborn child, and of the mother: Where a complication arises in pregnancy, doctors working in Ireland will do everything possible for the mother: Sometimes, despite the best efforts of the most talented doctors in the best-resourced hospitals, women die in pregnancy. This is due to the limitations of medicine, not because of restrictions imposed by the law.