THE ARRIVAL HOUR OF THE FIRST POPE EMERITUS IN NEARLY 600 YEARS.............

His Holiness Benedict XVI in his stunning and unexpected anouncement two and a half weeks ago that he would abdicate the primatial ministry of being the active and serving 265th Successor of St. Peter, set the hour of 8 p.m. Italian Time, February 28th, which is 2 p.m. Eastern, and 11 am. Pacific Time, as the hour his historic resignation would take place.  That time is here and having been at Castel Gandolfo, the residence fifteen miles south of the Vatican on Lake Albano, which has been the summer retreat of Popes for 400 years, for some two and half hours he is now the retired Holy Father, the Pope Emeritus, and the Chair of St. Peter is, "sede vacante",  empty / vacated.  The Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone, an Italian; is the, "Camerlengo", the Administrator / Overseer, of the management of the day to day operations, and temporal affairs of Vatican City State and the Church, until a new Pope is elected.  To Be Continued.............tdp