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- Pope Benedict XVI waves during a mass conducted by Cardinal
Tarcisio Bertone, for the 900th anniversary of the Order of the
Knights of Malta at the St. Peter Basilica in Vatican February
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ROME
(Reuters) - Pope Benedict, leader of the world's 1.2 billion
Catholics, said on Monday he will resign on Feb 28. because he no
longer has the strength to fulfill the duties of his office,
becoming the first pontiff since the Middle Ages to take such a
step.
The 85-year-old
German-born Pope, hailed as a hero by conservative Catholics and
viewed with suspicion by liberals, said he had noticed that his
strength had deteriorated over recent months.
His papacy has
been beset by a child sexual abuse crisis that tarnished the
Church, one address in which he upset Muslims and a scandal over
the leaking of his private papers by his personal butler.
In a statement,
the pope said in order to govern "...both strength of mind and body
are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has
deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my
incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me.
"For this reason,
and well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I
declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor
of Saint Peter," he said according to a statement from the
Vatican.
A Vatican
spokesman said the pontiff would step down from 2 p.m. ET on
February 28, leaving the office vacant until a successor was chosen
to Benedict who succeeded John Paul, one of history's most popular
pontiffs.
Elected to the
papacy on April 19, 2005 when he was 78 -- 20 years older than John
Paul was when he was elected -- he ruled over a slower-paced, more
cerebral and less impulsive Vatican.
But while
conservatives cheered him for trying to reaffirm traditional
Catholic identity, his critics accused him of turning back the
clock on reforms by nearly half a century and hurting dialogue with
Muslims, Jews and other Christians.
Before he was
elected Pope, the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was known by
such critical epithets as "God's rottweiler" because of his stern
stand on theological issues.
(Reporting by
Steve Scherer; editing by Janet McBride and Peter Millership)