After Pledging Loyalty to Successor, Pope Leaves Vatican
Source: New York Times
VATICAN CITY —Pope Benedict XVI left the Vatican by helicopter on Thursday afternoon, arriving at the papal summer residence in the final hours of his nearly eight-year, scandal-dogged papacy. Onlookers in St. Peter’s Square cheered, church bells rang and Romans stood on rooftops to wave flags as he flew by.
His retirement formally takes effect at 8 p.m. local time — three hours after his departure — when he will become the pope emeritus.
Earlier, in one of his concluding acts, he addressed the cardinals who will elect his successor, urging them to be “like an orchestra” that harmonizes for the good of the Roman Catholic Church and pledging that he would behave with “unconditional reverence and obedience” toward his successor.
After thanking the more than 100 cardinals collectively from a gilded throne in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace, the pope rose and greeted each of them individually.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/01/world/europe/pope-benedict-xvi.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
"If people studied history, they'd realize that scandals have existed in the Church even when Christ walked amongst us in the flesh. Remember it was one of his own apostles, Judas Iscariot, who sold him out:? and it was Peter, who denied him, not once but three times!"
Huh? Last I heard, the Church did not exist when Christ walked amongst us in the flesh. 
p.s. no idea what cottaging is, but I think I get the general idea 
Are you sure?
