Pope Benedict Farewell: Thousands Expected

By Sally Arthy, Senior News Editor, Rome

More than 50,000 people are expected to gather in St Peter's Square later today for Pope Benedict XVI's final general audience.

The Pope stunned the Catholic Church earlier this month when he announced he no longer had the mental or physical strength to carry on in the role.

He will officially stand aside on Thursday evening, the first pope to do so in 600 years.

He will leave the Vatican and fly by helicopter to the papal summer residence at Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome, until renovations have been completed on a monastery inside the Vatican walls.

Benedict calendars are sold outside his summer residence Castel Gandolfo

The Pope will live out the rest of his days in the new monastery in prayer and meditation.

At precisely 8pm (Rome time) the villa gates at Castel Gandolfo will close and the Swiss Guard will withdraw - a symbol that Pope Benedict XVI's papacy is over.

Benedict will then be known as Emeritus Pope and wear a simple white cassock and brown shoes rather than his trademark red loafers.

The final general audience will take place in St Peter's Square

After the general audience today, the Pope will meet a select group of heads of state and make final preparations for his departure.

On Thursday morning he will bid farewell to his Cardinals who will begin a series of meetings to determine his successor.

The date for the conclave - when eligible cardinals vote in secret in the Sistine Chapel - has yet to be announced.

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