A pope resigns - Benedict put belief before Church unity

Pope Benedict’s last general audience, in Rome yesterday, was an emotional, but nevertheless joyous, affair.

His decision to resign, the first by a pontiff in 600 years, was celebrated for all the right reasons by 150,000 people in St Peter’s Square.

His abdication is seen by some as an opportunity for the Catholic Church to meet the contemporary world on a more direct, a more inclusive and democratic footing. For others it is the very moment to mark Benedict’s legacy by honouring and preserving the doctrines he considered immutable, doctrines he believed beyond the reach of social evolution.