Pope Benedict XVI has announced he will resign on February 28th, saying he no longer had the strength to fulfill the duties of his office. The 85-year-old Pope announced his decision in Latin during a meeting of Vatican cardinals. 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, he told the cardinals.
May 2006: Pope Benedict walks through the gate of the former Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz in Oswiecim, Poland to pay his respect to the victims of the holocaust
The pontiff steered the Catholic church for eight years after being chosen to succeed John Paul II in April 2005 (above). We look back at his life in pictures. April 2005: Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Joseph Ratsinger of Germany, waves from a balcony at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican after being elected by the conclave of cardinals.
1932: Joseph Ratzinger with his knapsack in Aschau am Inn, Germany
1943: Joseph Ratzinger in the uniform of a German military anti-aircraft unit helper
1978: Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger with Mother Teresa in the south western German city of Freiburg
1965: Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger during his time as a professor at the University of Regensburg
July 1987: Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger with Bishop Karl Lehmann during a Catholic meeting in the eastern German city of Dresden
1996: Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger
August 2005: Pope Benedict waves from his popemobile as he arrives at Marienfeld for the concluding Mass of the World Youth Day at the Marienfeld near Cologne
December 2005: Pope Benedict XVI, sporting a fur-trimmed hat, waves to pilgrims upon his arrival in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican for his weekly general audience
April 2006: Pope Benedict exchanges gifts with Cherie Blair who was participating in a Vatican conference on children
November 2006: Pope Benedict meets Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams in his private library in Vatican City
June 2007: A TV grab shows guards pining a man down (R) during Pope Benedict's weekly audience in Vatican City. A man leaped over a barricade during Pope Benedict's weekly audience and tried to jump on to his moving, open-topped popemobile but was stopped by guards.
June 2007: Pope Benedict XVI meets Prime Minister Tony Blair in a private audience at his library, in Vatican City
April 2008: The red shoes of Pope Benedict
July 2008: Pope Benedict strokes a koala during his tour of Australia
July 2008: Pope Benedict wears a police cap as he meets a former Australian police officer at the Kenthurst Study Center, in Sydney
May 2009: Pope Benedict leaves at the end of his general audience in Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican
September 16, 2010: Pope Benedict with Prince Philp and the Queen at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh
September 2010: Pope Benedict presides over a Celebration of Catholic Education at St Mary's University College, in south-west London
March 2012: Pope Benedict meets former Cuban leader Fidel Castro in Havana
Pope Benedict XVI wears a sombrero as he arrives to lead a mass at the Parque del Bicentenario in Silao, Mexico
November 2012: Pope Benedict gestures as he leaves at the end of a consistory mass in St Peter's Basilica at the Vatican
December 2012: Pope Benedict XVI strokes a lion cub as he greets circus artists and workers at the Vatican
