FaithWorld

(Pope Benedict XVI (C) posts his first tweet using an iPad tablet after his Wednesday general audience in Paul VI’s Hall at the Vatican December 12, 2012. REUTERS/Osservatore Romano)

It could have been the tweet of the century.

But Pope Benedict decided not to announce his resignation on Twitter, which he joined last year in a foray into social media that has reaped uncertain spiritual returns and could be curtailed by his successor.

Obviously keen to avoid any leak of his resignation – which would have been a risk as his tweets are typed up by an aide – the pope announced it in person, in Latin, to a restricted group of cardinals. The video was then given to the world’s media.

News of the first pontiff to resign in seven centuries scorched through Twitter, generating 1.5 million comments in the first 36 hours, according to analytics firm Crimson Hexagon.

But of those, a third were negative, criticising the pope or the Roman Catholic Church, and 38 percent were jokes. Just 7 percent were positive, expressing concern for the pontiff or hope about the future.

(Archbishop Piero Marini closes the doors to the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel as cardinals begin the last conclave on April 18, 2005, which elected Pope Benedict. REUTERS/Osservatore Romano)

The conclave to choose Pope Benedict’s successor could start earlier than expected, giving the Roman Catholic Church a new leader by mid March, the Vatican said on Saturday.

Less than two weeks away from a historic papal resignation, the Vatican also stressed again that the pope was not abandoning the Church in times of difficulties and urged the faithful to trust in God and in the next pope.

(The Vatican’s defensive walls, 19 Dec 2005/Vincent de Groot)

Pope Benedict’s decision to live in the Vatican after he resigns will provide him with security and privacy. It will also offer legal protection from any attempt to prosecute him in connection with sexual abuse cases around the world, Church sources and legal experts say.

“His continued presence in the Vatican is necessary, otherwise he might be defenseless. He wouldn’t have his immunity, his prerogatives, his security, if he is anywhere else,” said one Vatican official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“It is absolutely necessary” that he stays in the Vatican, said the source, adding that Benedict should have a “dignified existence” in his remaining years.

(Cardinal Peter Turkson (2nd L) during the Ash Wednesday mass at the Vatican February 13, 2013. REUTERS/ Alessandro Bianchi)

A black African pope to succeed Pope Benedict would be “quite some miracle”, a leading archbishop from Ghana said, adding that a developing world candidate might have to overcome negative perceptions within the Catholic hierarchy.

“If the Church chooses a Third World person or a black pope it will have to come to terms with itself,” Matthias Kobena Nketsiah, archbishop of Cape Coast, told Reuters.

(Director Nanni Moretti (L) and cast member Michel Piccoli pose as they arrive on the red carpet for the screening of the film “Habemus Papam” (We Have A Pope) in competition at the 64th Cannes Film Festival, May 13, 2011. REUTERS/Jean-Paul Pelissier )

Pope Benedict’s resignation announcement on Monday shocked many in the Roman Catholic world and beyond, yet for those who know where to look, there were portents aplenty.

Take Nanni Moretti’s 2011 comedy-drama “Habemus Papam” – “We have a pope!” – in which a depressed and panic-stricken newly-elected pope escapes his Vatican minders for a few days before returning to announce, in his first address, that he doesn’t have what it takes for the job.

(Shoemaker Antonio Arellano works on a red shoe he made for Pope Benedict XVI in his shop in downtown Rome February 14, 2013. REUTERS/Tony Gentile)

At Gammarelli, a discreet oak-panelled tailor’s shop in central Rome, they are expected to be already creating sumptuous vestments for the new pope – in small, medium and large sizes so whoever is chosen will get the right fit.

Few of the tourists strolling past on their way to the Pantheon, one of Rome’s grandest ancient temples, give the shop at 34 Via Santa Chiara a second glance. Locals who know it is the pope’s tailor are a bit more curious.

(Road signs  in front of Saint Peter’s Basilica from the Vatican Gardens at the Vatican May 31, 2010. REUTERS/Max Rossi )

Few authors can boast that Pope Benedict helped sell their books, but the pontiff’s shock resignation has boosted interest in all things Catholic just as veteran Vatican journalist John Thavis is about to publish.

“The Vatican Diaries,” a behind-the-scenes look at the faith’s fabled nerve centre, goes on sale on February 21, just one week before the pope takes the nearly unprecedented step of quitting as the head of the world’s largest church.

(Priests stand in a queue in front of St. Peter Basilica before Pope Benedict XVI’s special audience with priests of the Diocese of Rome in Paul VI’s hall at the Vatican February 14, 2013. REUTERS/ Alessandro Bianchi )

With passing phrases and striking images, Pope Benedict is assembling a last testament to his Roman Catholic Church, urging its leaders to put aside their rivalries and think only of the unity of the faith.

The message, slipped into statements both before and after his shock resignation announcement on Monday, reads like a veiled rebuke to leading cardinals jockeying for influence in the upcoming conclave and in the papacy that it will produce.

(Pope Benedict XVI meets bishops at the end of his Wednesday general audience in Paul VI hall at the Vatican February 13, 2013. REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini)

Pope Benedict may have shocked the world by announcing his resignation on Monday, but some cardinals apparently started maneuvering for the succession as long as two years ago.

Papal elections are among the world’s most mysterious, with no declared candidates and more bluffing than a high-stakes poker game. No cardinal can openly campaign for a job whose election is said to be inspired by the Holy Spirit.

(St Peter’s Basilica is pictured at the Vatican February 12, 2013. REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi )

Cardinals around the world began informal contacts to discuss who should next lead the Church through a period of major crisis and the Vatican said it planned a big send-off for Pope Benedict before he becomes the first pontiff in centuries to resign.

At a Tuesday news conference on how the pope plans to spend the next two weeks before he steps out of the limelight, the Vatican also disclosed that the 85-year-old Benedict has been wearing a pacemaker since before he was elected pope in 2005.