The last audience

Pope Benedict XVI bid an emotional farewell at his last general audience, acknowledging the “rough seas” that marked his papacy “when it seemed that the lord was sleeping”.

In an unusually public outpouring for such a private man, he alluded to some of the most difficult times of his papacy, which was dogged by sex abuse scandals, leaks of his private papers, and reports of infighting among his closest aides.