The Pope's Paper: "Benedict Leaves"

Hot off the presses and topped by the headline "Benedict XVI Leaves the Papacy," here's the historic front page of tomorrow's edition of the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano.

On a quick side-note, today's date provides two possible rationales for the timing of Joseph Ratzinger's epic announcement of his resignation from Peter's Chair – first, this feast of Our Lady of Lourdes marks the church's annual World Day of the Sick... while in the Vatican, this is Independence Day: the anniversary of the 1929 Lateran Pacts which made the Holy See's home-turf a sovereign city-state, with the Roman pontiff as its absolute monarch.

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