About two weeks ago,the world was greeted with the news of his decision to resign; now the Catholic church is left to pick a successor before easter.
Usually when the pope dies, the college of cardinals (made up of 115 cardinals) elect a Pope within 15 to 20 days; but time it's different. Vatican spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi says the selection could be done before March 15th; this would give the new Pontiff about a week to prepare for the mass celebrating Palm sunday (March 24th).
Having the current pope involved has made the process different; a little amendment has been made to fast track the process. First changes were made in 1996 by Pope John Paul II, who anticipated modern forms of communication and forbade recording devices in the vatican during the process.
The traditional method of choosing a pope has been cut to two; leaving the cardinals to do so by paper ballot only.
When the cardinals get to the concave, the ballot is burnt in a furnace together with any piece of paper they used to write during the process, if no decision has been made, a chemical is added to make the smoke black; however, if there is a winner, no chemical is added leaving the smoke white, telling the world that a new Pontiff has emerged.
One last time, the now Pope emeritus took the stage at St Peter's square, before crowds that gathered to bid him well speaking on moments of joy, pains and peace in the church world wide.
He says, his life in retirement will be "simply a return to the private place. My decision is to forgo the exercise of active ministry, not revoke it. In order to return to private life, not to a life of travel, meetings, receptions, conferences and so on,"
He will keep the name Benedict XVI and still be addressed as ''his holiness''
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