Pope begins week-long retreat before resignation

Vatican City, Feb 18 (AFP) Pope Benedict XVI began a week-long spiritual retreat out of the public eye today ahead of his resignation on February 28, with the field of candidates to succeed him still wide open. Benedict and some of his top cardinals will devote this week to daily prayers in a frescoed private chapel in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican during Lent -- a period of penitence in the Christian calendar before Easter. The cardinal leading the prayers said he hoped the retreat would serve as a period of respite for the pope following his momentous decision to step down. "After the storm, my task will be to create a moment of oasis," Gianfranco Ravasi, who is effectively the Vatican's culture minister and is seen as a long-shot contender for the papacy, told Vatican radio. The retreat is a yearly tradition -- one of several regular appointments that the pope has stuck to in the wake of his historic announcement last week. Following the retreat, the pope will receive Italian President Giorgio Napolitano on February 23, celebrate his final Sunday prayer on February 24, and hold a last audience before tens of thousands of faithful on February 27. Benedict will formally step down as pope on February 28 at 0030 hrs IST, shortly after being whisked away from the Vatican by helicopter for the last time. His role and title following his resignation have still not been determined and no date has been set for the conclave of cardinals to elect him. The resignation will set up an unprecedented situation in modern Catholic history where popes usually serve until death -- a pontiff and his predecessor both living in the Vatican just a stone's throw away from each other. Vatican observers say Benedict's move could set a precedent for future popes, whose advancing age often hampers their effort to govern the Church. (AFP) NKB KUN 02182119 NNNN