Religion, Pope Benedict Xvi | featured news

Pope Francis has won over many hearts and minds with his simple style and focus on serving the world's poorest, but he has devastated traditionalist Catholics who adored his predecessor, Benedict XVI, for restoring much of the traditional pomp to the papacy....

It will be an unprecedented meeting of men and minds, a conversation almost without parallel. When Pope Francis meets the pope emeritus, as is expected perhaps as soon as Friday, he will become the first pontiff in modern history to sit down with his predecessor.

Roman Catholic cardinals will start their conclave to elect a successor to Pope Benedict on the afternoon of Tuesday March 12, the Vatican said in a statement on Friday.

More than 140 Catholic cardinals met Monday at the Vatican, where the process of selecting a new pope edged toward beginning. The cardinals gathered in the morning, but had not decided when the conclave to select Pope Benedict XVI's successor would start, Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi told reporters.

To a chorus of bells and a ripple of applause from his closest advisers, Pope Benedict XVI departed the Vatican for the last time as pontiff Thursday. He emerged from the Apostolic Palace and was saluted by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state, and other senior staff members in the St. Damaso Courtyard before being driven to his helicopter for the journey to his lavish temporary residence.

A few minutes after Benedict XVI gave his last public address as pope Wednesday morning, Vatican spokesmen in the Holy See’s news media office asked reporters if they had any questions about the pope’s farewell message. After some moments of silence, a hand shot up in the back of the room.

Pope Benedict XVI will keep the name Benedict XVI and become the Roman pontiff emeritus or pope emeritus, the Vatican announced on Tuesday, putting an end to days of speculation on how the pope will be addressed once he ceases to be the leader of the world’s 1.1 billion Roman Catholics on Thursday.

If evidence was ever needed that the next pope must urgently overhaul the powerful Vatican bureaucracy called the Curia, the scandal over Pope Benedict XVI's private papers is Exhibit A....

When Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected Pope Benedict XVI in 2005, the choice of the Vatican's guardian of orthodoxy cast a pall over the liberal wing of the flock and left conservatives giddy with the prospect of total victory.

When he became pope at age 78, Benedict XVI was already the oldest pontiff elected in nearly 300 years. He's now 85, and in recent years he has slowed down significantly, cutting back his foreign travel and limiting his audiences.