Pope Benedict XVI is set to resign at the end of the month. His resignation was the lead story on many popular morning news programs including ABC's "Good Morning America."
According to a report from GMA at Yahoo.com on Feb. 11, the pope will be the first pontiff to resign in about 600 years. At age 85, his resignation comes due to deteriorating strength and health reasons. He noted the role requires "both strength of mind and body." Vatican officials have noticed he has been getting weaker. Benedict noted that he made this decision freely though.
The Vatican Communications Director, Greg Burke, said in a statement to ABC News:
"[Pope Benedict] is slowing a bit, and there's nothing immediately serious or grave … he has an older brother… he just thought the demands of the job were too much for his physical well being."
Benedict became the oldest pope to be elected at age 78 back in April of 2005. He was also the first German pope since the 11th century. He will be known as the "teaching Pope" due to all the information he has published on the Catholic faith. In terms of social media, he also became the first pope to use the Twitter micro-blogging site.
Pope Benedict XVI will officially resign at 8 a.m. in the morning on Feb. 28. Now the decision to elect a new pope will come for the cardinals who cast secret ballots in a room. It's unknown which nationality the new pope will be at this point.
Pope Benedict XVI'x official resignation text can be seen here at Washington Post. Continued coverage will be seen on many news stations including CNN and CNN Headline News throughout the day and coming weeks.
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