Wow! A huge crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square for Pope Benedict XVI’s first blessing and window appearance after announcing that he would step down at the end of this month.
VATICAN CITY (AP) – Pope Benedict XVI blessed thousands at St. Peter’s Square for the first time since announcing his resignation.
— Beshanda Spencer (@allaboutnews) February 17, 2013
Thousands gather in St Peter’s Square as #Pope Benedict XVI makes window appearance bbc.in/YpxW6v
— BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) February 17, 2013
More from BBC News:
The Pope appeared at his study window overlooking St Peter’s Square at 11:00 GMT, his first such appearance since announcing his resignation last Monday.
The crowd erupted into loud applause and there were chants of “Long live the Pope”.
One banner in the square read: “We love you”.
Vatican crowd is emotional for Pope Benedict XVI’s penultimate Angelus blessing – cbsn.ws/14ZJBgo
— CBS News (@CBSNews) February 17, 2013
On-scene photos and video were quickly posted to Twitter.
The love and thanks of the people for @pontifex MT@PCCS_VA: Angelus today (Foto Osservatore Romano) twitter.com/PCCS_VA/status…
— Stephanie Potter (@Sjgpotter) February 17, 2013
Amazing.
Huge crowd in St Peter’s Sq right now for Pope B’a 2nd to last Angelus twitter.com/abcdavid/statu…
— David Wright (@abcdavid) February 17, 2013
Thousands in St. Peter’s Square to see Pope Benedict twitter.com/a_satur/status…
— alanna satur (@a_satur) February 17, 2013
Pope Benedict bless people from St Peter’s Square window as he is about abdict – unitymedianews.com/2013/02/17/pop… twitter.com/unitymedianews…
— Unity Media News (@unitymedianews1) February 17, 2013
Saint Peter’s Square: the Angelus! #pope #vatican #BXVI twitter.com/marcoscandelli…
— Marco Scandelli (@marcoscandelli) February 17, 2013
Raw: Pope Blesses Thousands at St. Peter’s Sq.: youtu.be/2TXE6nzFRZk via @youtube
— BerndPulch (@Pulch) February 17, 2013
The pope has no other public appearances scheduled this week.
Pope will enter retreat this evening; he has no public appointments for a week. twitter.com/CatholicNewsSv…
— Catholic News Svc (@CatholicNewsSvc) February 17, 2013
