Pope Delivers His Final Sunday Prayers | WPN World People News

Tens of thousands of people gathered at the Vatican Sunday to hear Pope Benedict XVI deliver his last Sunday prayers delivered from the window of his apartment high above St. Peter's Square.

The pope told the huge crowd that he is not abandoning the church, and will continue to serve through prayer after his retirement later this week.

The pope, leader of more than a billion Catholics around the world, will hold his final general audience in St. Peter's on Wednesday.

Cardinals are arriving in Rome to elect Benedict's successor as the Vatican battles unsavory media reports.

The Vatican has criticized the media for adding what it called defamatory "pressures" on cardinals ahead of the election.

The Vatican secretariat of state said Saturday that the "widespread distribution of often unverified, unverifiable or completely false news stories" is "deplorable" and causes serious damage to people and institutions.

Italian newspapers recently have put out unsourced reports about the contents of a secret dossier prepared for the pope that was linked to the 2012 scandal over leaked Vatican documents.

Pope Benedict announced earlier this month that he was resigning for health reasons. He is the first pope to step aside in hundreds of years.

Current rules call for the cardinals who elect the pope to meet on March 15, which is 15 days after Benedict formally steps down.

Benedict is 85 years old. He was elected pope in 2005 to replace the late John Paul the Second.

Source: Voice of America