The crowds were larger, the audience wider as Benedict XVI spoke at his final general audience Wednesday, Feb. 27. His candor was striking: “There have been times when the seas were rough and the wind against us, as in the whole history of the church it has ever been - and the Lord seemed to sleep.” And amid the thanks, to his collaborators, the people of the church, a wider public, there was a sense of hopefulness, that he was not in it alone: “I said before that many people who love the Lord also love the Successor of Saint Peter and are fond of him, that the pope has truly brothers and sisters, sons and daughters all over the world, and that he feels safe in the embrace of their communion, because he no longer belongs to himself, but he belongs to all and all are truly his own.”

nbsp Today Pope Benedict XVI delivered what Catholic News Service described as an quot emotional quot farewell address at his final general audience in Rome nbsp Here is the complete text from Vatican Radio Venerable Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Priesthood Distinguished Authorities De

Dutiful readers of In All Things will know that I am in the midst of a Lenten series of meditations on the Second Chapter of the Yoga Sutras, the “Yoga of Practice.” I am just up to the part where I will begin to discuss the “restraints” (yama: non-violence, truthfulness, non-stealing, celibacy, and non-grasping) and “observances” (niyama: purity, contentment, austerity, one’s own study, and dedication to the Lord). Celibacy will be discussed briefly in this context. Reading the Yoga Sutras on such matters is interesting, since it shows us how asceticism and celibacy have been thought of outside the West and in a different religion, many centuries ago.

“I only wish I had more to give,” an elderly Jesuit said at a community meeting a few days before he left for the infirmary. One can imagine Pope Benedict having the same sentiments during his last days in office. Joseph Ratzinger’s time as the Holy Father has come to an end; he is utterly spent. Yet he will always be heroic to me. I do not say this is in a saccharine manner, nor do I expect that everyone have the same impression. Few would have guessed that the little old man (I mean that with all respect and affection) elected eight years ago would live up to such a claim. He surely did not either, seeming to choose deliberately the name of a pope who had already faded into history but who had done what he could for peace in the last century. Upon assuming Peter’s chair, Pope Benedict XVI told us that we as God’s people would have to accept what Joseph Ratzinger knew he was all along: “a simple, humble laborer in the vineyard of the Lord.” At the announcement of his stepping down, he requested “pardon” for his “defects.”

We who do not live in Rome must rely on well-situated observers and reporters. Among the journalists, those resident in the city and accredited to the Holy See are best placed. To begin with, they speak Italian, which is the lingua franca of church life in Rome. Latin would be nice and can be crucial (Benedict’s announcement at the consistory that he would resign was made in Latin, and I remember Cardinal Bernard Law deciding to make his intervention, jargon for a speech, at a bishops synod at the Vatican in Latin, presumably to show his independence of American culture and media).

nbsp America is pleased to announced the naming of John Carr as our new Washington Correspondent Mr Carr whose first column will appear in the March 11 issue will offer regular analysis and commentary in print and online on key issues and events in the nation rsquo s capital His print column