Rome: Pope Benedict XVI says goodbye to the Vatican

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"Thank you for your friendship, for your affection, ... we will proceed forward for the good of the Church, for the good of the world... Thank you and good night, to everyone, thank you."

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | Int'l Desk
Source/Credit: CBS News
By CBS/AP/ | February 28, 2013

Pope Benedict XVI has left Vatican City for the last time. He will return -- not as Pope Benedict XVI, but as Pope Emeritus -- a retired man. Later Thursday, Benedict will become the first pope in about 600 years to retire.

He emerged late in the afternoon from the Apostolic Palace, walking with the help of a cane, for a short car ride to a waiting helicopter that would fly him into the next chapter of his life.

CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips said the crowd outside the Palace was large, but not huge, perhaps because Benedict failed to ever garner the sort of public adoration that his predecessor Pope John Paul II did, or perhaps because many of those wishing to bid Benedict farewell did so the previous day during his last general audience at St. Peter's Square.

The papal limousine wound its way to the highest point in the Vatican gardens, on which the helipad sits. Benedict and a few of his closest aides climbed into the Italian Air Force helicopter for the short flight to the town of Castel Gandolfo, about 15 miles away. The sun was just beginning to set over the Roman skyline as the helicopter's rotors started to spin, and the Vatican bells chimed.

As his helicopter took off, the final tweet on the Pope's official account, @Pontifex, was issued:

The account was to be shut down after that, his 39th tweet.

After the short flight from the Vatican to the papal retreat at Castel Gandolfo. He emerged minutes after arriving onto a balcony overlooking a square below the residence, which has been used by pontiffs to escape the heat of Rome for centuries.

"Thank you for your friendship, for your affection," said Benedict, in his last public appearance as leader of the Roman Catholic Church. He vowed to continue serving the Church in his retirement, saying, "we will proceed forward for the good of the Church, for the good of the world... Thank you and good night, to everyone, thank you."

With that, he turned and walked back into the sprawling complex.

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