Statement by Benedict XVI announcing his resignation

"Dear Brothers, I have convoked you to this Consistory, not only for the three canonizations, but also to communicate to you a decision of great importance for the life of the Church. After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry. I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only with words and deeds, but no less with prayer and suffering. However, in today’s world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the barque of Saint Peter and proclaim the Gospel, 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, entrusted to me by the Cardinals on 19 April 2005, in such a way, that as from 28 February 2013, at 20:00 hours, the See of Rome, the See of Saint Peter, will be vacant and a Conclave to elect the new Supreme Pontiff will have to be convoked by those whose competence it is.

Dear Brothers, I thank you most sincerely for all the love and work with which you have supported me in my ministry and I ask pardon for all my defects. And now, let us entrust the Holy Church to the care of Our Supreme Pastor, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and implore his holy Mother Mary, so that she may assist the Cardinal Fathers with her maternal solicitude, in electing a new Supreme Pontiff. With regard to myself, I wish to also devotedly serve the Holy Church of God in the future through a life dedicated to prayer."

After presiding, on Wednesday, February 13, in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Mass for Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent, and after attending the retreat preached this year by Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, President of the Pontifical Council for Culture, until February 23 (during which retreat he will not hold any public audience), Benedict XVI is supposed to recite the Angelus on Sunday, February 24, from the balcony of his private apartments, and to give his last public audience on Wednesday, February 27.  On the evening of the next day he will cease to be pope and will withdraw to Castel Gandolfo.  Later he will take up residence in a small apartment that will be arranged for him in the monastery of contemplative nuns situated within the precincts of the Vatican, where he hopes to end his life in recollection and prayer.