Pope Benedict Xvi

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI has left the building. Shortly after 5 p.m. in Rome, the outgoing pontiff boarded a helicopter at the Vatican and flew to a summer retreat south of the city to spend the final hours of his papacy and the first few weeks of his retirement. The courtyard at the Vatican was lined with clapping well-wishers, church officials and the plume-hatted Swiss Guards, the pope's protectors, as Benedict left the papal apartment for the last time. On the Vatican's helipad, he raised his arms in farewell, still wearing his white papal vestments, and the chopper lifted off into blue skies.

ROME -- Pope Francis launched a long-awaited cleanup of the Vatican by announcing a task force Saturday made up of eight high-ranking cardinals, including one American, who will determine how best to reform the much-criticized Curia, or Vatican administration. The new panel, comprising senior prelates from five continents, will meet for the first time in early October. Only one serving Vatican official has been named to the body. The Vatican's sluggish and dysfunctional bureaucracy has been blamed for a number of gaffes that plagued the papacy of Francis' predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, who announced his resignation as head of the Roman Catholic Church in February.

VATICAN CITY - The timing said it all. A smiling Pope Benedict XVI had just wrapped up an official visit to Portugal in May 2010, during which he praised Catholic organizations striving to protect families based on "the indissoluble marriage between a man and a woman. " But barely 72 hours after the pontiff flew home, the president of Portugal declared that he would sign a bill allowing gay and lesbian couples to wed. With Spain having granted such rights five years earlier, the move turned the entire Iberian Peninsula, historically a Catholic stronghold, into an unlikely hitching post for homosexuals.

Five years ago I wrote an op-ed column for The Times about Pope Benedict XVI's partiality for ornate vestments and miters (the double-pointed hats sported not only by the pope but also by other bishops in the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches). That article, which a clever copy editor titled “Dress Code,”  is looking more and more like a period piece after the inaugural Mass of Benedict's successor, Pope Francis. In what must have been a disappointment to Msgr Guido Marini, the papal “master of ceremonies” who outfitted Benedict in skyscraper jeweled miters and elaborately embroidered chasubles, Francis dressed down at a ceremony that was a far cry from the formality of Benedict's inaugural Mass, let alone the coronations with which popes began their pontificate before Pope John Paul I junked the tiara in 1978.

What do you get for the holy man who has everything? If he's Pope Benedict XVI, you get him a new Mercedes-Benz Popemobile. Based on the company's midsize M-Class SUV, the new diamond-white Popemobile replaces an older Mercedes model that had served his holiness since 2002. The automaker has been providing popes their eponymous vehicles since 1930. Photos: All-new Mercedes-Benz Popemobile Mercedes says the new model has an upgraded dome for the Pope to ride in. It features easier access for the 85-year-old pontiff, larger bulletproof glass panels for better visibility and lights in the roof to illuminate the subject below.

Pope Benedict XVI joined a standing ovation Friday during a performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony at Milan's La Scala theater. Following a fiery performance of "Ode to Joy," the 85-year-old pontiff made his way to the stage to address the crowd, according to the Associated Press. "It is not a distinctly Christian joy of which Beethoven sings, rather of the joy of coexistence of the people, victory over egoism," the pope said. He then thanked conductor Daniel Barenboim for his musical selection, saying, "It permits us to launch a message with the music that affirms the fundamental value of solidarity, of fraternity and of peace.

VATICAN CITY - On his last morning in office Thursday, Pope Benedict XVI pledged to respect and obey his successor and told the church's cardinals that he would pray for them to be guided by the Holy Spirit in their selection of a new pontiff. “Among you is…the future pope, to whom I promise my unconditional reverence and obedience,” the pontiff said, apparently trying to allay fears that having both a reigning and retired pope living inside the Vatican might spark confusion or division within the church.

VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican said Tuesday that Pope Benedict XVI will stick to his busy schedule of public appearances until he steps down on Feb. 28, even as it revealed that Benedict had been fitted with a pacemaker. Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said the pope had been fitted with the pacemaker to regulate his heartbeat before he was elected pope in 2005 but that it had not played a role in his decision to resign. "It had no influence on the decision. The reasons were in his perception that his strength had diminished with advancing age," Lombardi said.

The Roman Catholic Church will choose a new pope after Pope Benedict XVI announced his plans to resign Monday in a ritualized system of balloting with a long history. The pope is chosen through a closed, elaborately regulated gathering called a conclave, which brings together cardinals at the Sistine Chapel. The new pope will be chosen in unusual circumstances, since it has been centuries since a pope has stepped aside.   The conclave normally begins 15 days after the death of the pope, and can be held no longer than 20 days after his passing; a Vatican spokesman said Monday.

`Dear brothers and sisters, after the great Pope John Paul II, the cardinals have elected me -- a simple, humble worker in the vineyard of the Lord. The fact that the Lord can work and act even with insufficient means consoles me, and above all I entrust myself to your prayers. In the joy of the risen Lord, trusting in his permanent help, we go forward. The Lord will help us, and Mary his very holy mother stands by us.' Pope Benedict XVI, addressing the crowd in St. Peter's Square

VATICAN CITY - Few people were more shocked at the choice of a Jesuit as pope than the Jesuits. There had never been a Jesuit pope before Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina was elected last week, and he was the only Jesuit among the 115 cardinals who voted in the papal conclave. (The only other one, from Indonesia, was too ill to attend.) Pope Francis, who will be installed formally Tuesday before more than 100 heads of state and foreign delegations, including Vice President Joe Biden and what will undoubtedly be an adoring crowd, has already shown himself to be a different kind of pope.

VATICAN CITY - Two popes? Before Benedict XVI resigned last month, the last pope to do so was Gregory XII in 1415. Gregory acted to end the wrenching and violent Great Schism of the Roman Catholic Church, when more than one man claimed St. Peter's throne. What's happening today is completely different; no one is fighting over the chair. Yet Benedict's decision has resulted in hand-wringing over the unprecedented-in-modern-times specter of two men in white cassocks living, figuratively speaking, under the same Vatican roof: newly appointed Pope Francis and Pope Emeritus Benedict.

The Argentine cardinal Jorge Bergoglio was chosen Wednesday as the new pontiff to lead 1.2 billion Catholics around the world, taking the name Pope Francis. His election puts a halt to the fevered speculation and outright betting surrounding who would become the next pope. The balloting inside the Sistine Chapel is not revealed to the outside world, but here are some of the other figures who were eyed in the media as possible candidates for pope: Angelo Scola: Scola, 71, was considered a leading candidate to assume the throne of St. Peter from the moment Pope Benedict XVI announced his intention to retire.

For the first time in history, the Roman Catholic Church has a pope from the New World, but liberal American Catholics should not expect Pope Francis to stray far from the old theology. Some things are excitingly different about this new pontiff. On matters of birth control, abortion, homosexuality, celibate priests and the role of women in the church, however, he is no revolutionary. When Argentina's Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio stepped out on the Vatican balcony as the new pope on Wednesday evening, all he was required to do was wave and give a blessing.

The papacy now has another septuagenarian. Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 76, an Argentine, was selected Wednesday to head the Roman Catholic Church, an opening that arose when his predecessor, 85-year-old Pope Benedict XVI, stepped down from the demanding post, citing frailty. Benedict's move was a aberrant one, historically speaking. No pope had stepped down from the lifelong position in almost 600 years . FULL COVERAGE: Election of a pope Benedict was elected in 2005 at the age of 78 to succeed Pope John Paul II, which was seen as a move that continued the conservative bent of John Paul's reign.

VATICAN CITY - Andrea Quintarelli had rushed to St. Peter's Square with his sister Wednesday the moment he heard that the papal conclave had made a selection. Despite describing himself as "not a churchgoer," the 21-year-old felt that as a proud resident of Rome he had to join the thousands gathered to see the new pope the moment he emerged. "This is a once in a lifetime, emotional moment," he said. "Romans have a special relationship with the pope and I will never forget how John Paul II used Roman dialect.

Digital white smoke signals may soon be rising on Twitter. The Vatican says Pope Benedict XVI will begin tweeting from a personal Twitter account, possibly before year's end. This clearly won't rival Pope Benedict XVI's first appearance on the St. Peter's balcony - - or even his first appearance on Twitter. But it should give him a far more apostolic follower count than his Vatican account (some 28,000 faithful). The 85-year-old Benedict first tweeted from that Vatican account last year.

VATICAN CITY -- An Italian television station is broadcasting the salacious show "The Borgias" during the papal election conclave, despite pressure from a Catholic group to drop it because of its unflattering depiction of the papacy and the effect it might have on non-Catholics who might confuse past and present. The group, AIART, which represents Roman Catholic television viewers in Italy, criticized the decision by the La7 channel to air the Showtime series, which stars Jeremy Irons as Rodrigo Borgia, a scheming, womanizing member of the Borgia family who pays his way to becoming pope at the end of the 15th century.

VATICAN CITY -- White smoke rose from the Sistine Chapel on Wednesday, proclaiming the selection of a new pope by Roman Catholic cardinals on their second day of voting. The name of the man chosen to replace Pope Benedict XVI will be announced within the next minutes, to the famous Latin phrase “ habemus papam " ("we have a pope"). The bells of St. Peter's Basilica tolled to confirm the selection.   Thousands of people who packed St. Peter's Square roared approval and chanted, " habemus papam . " BREAKING NEWS: Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina elected pope His successor, the 266th pontiff, will be revealed upon making his first appearance from behind red velvet curtains on the main balcony of St. Peter's Basilica.