General Audience of 27 February 2013
Pope Benedict XVI27 February 2013
Benedict XVI’s last general audience, in St Peter’s Square on the day before his resignation took effect, in which he explains the decision and says how he will live afterwards.
Benedict XVI spoke to the crowd in St Peter’s Square on the eve of the vacancy. The address looks back over his eight years, thanks those who worked with him, and then turns to the resignation: he says that he took the step for the good of the church, aware of its gravity “and even its novelty”, and that he is not returning to private life.
It is his own account of his motives and of what he understood a retired pope to be, and is cited for that in Benedict XVI Resigns and Francis Is Elected.
Cited in
- 11 February 2013, firm date