Tears and applause at Benedict’s farewell

ITALY: Pope Benedict XVI's final goodbye was met with tears and applause in the tiny hilltop town of Castel Gandolfo near Rome Thursday, where thousands had gathered to hear his emotional last words before he retired.

“Thank you for your friendship,” the 85-year old said as he stepped out onto a balcony of the papal residence here, smiling widely and holding out his arms to the crowd of flag-waving families, priests and pilgrims, who cheered wildly and chanted “Be-ne-detto!” Church bells rang out to announce his arrival, as local residents crowded onto balconies and rooftops surrounding the square of this mediaeval town, which has a bond with the papacy going back centuries and where locals have grown to know and love Benedict.

After waiting for hours in the chill wind, chanting Hail Marys and huddling together for warmth, the crowd gazed eagerly up into the sky to catch a glimpse of the papal helicopter arriving from the Vatican, which Benedict left just minutes earlier for the last time as pope.

“It was all over so soon. What a joy to see him, but how sad to think it is for the last time,” said Giuseppina, a 23-year-old local waitress, wiping away a tear.

Others could be seen tearing up as Benedict told the crowd he was soon to be just “a simple pilgrim” like them, before blessing them and retiring into the palace, and out of sight from the world.

“It means a huge amount to us that Benedict has chosen to say his final goodbyes here, it's a very emotional day,” said Patrizia Gasperini, 40, a local shopkeeper.

“We've been privileged to see a different, more humane side to him over the years, and grown to love him,” she said, adding that she had named her eight-year-old daughter Benedetta in honour of the pope.

“I haven't really accepted he's gone,” she added.

“Thank you Benedict, we are all with you!” read huge inflatable silver letters strung next to the small parish church, where parish priest Pietro Diletti spoke of the pope he had befriended.

“I've met the pope many times, we've eaten together, we've joked together, and it's an immense gesture of friendship on his part that he has chosen us for his last goodbye,” said Diletti.

Benedict celebrated a mass every year during his eight-year pontificate in Diletti's small parish church of San Tommaso di Villanova.

“Everything I thought I knew about him changed when I first met him.

AFP