Pope Benedict XVI celebrates emotional last Sunday prayer

Pope Benedict XVI. AP

VATICAN CITY—Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday told tens of thousands of pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square in a voice breaking with emotion that he was resigning because God had called on him to devote himself to prayer but said he would not abandon the Church.

“The Lord is calling me to climb the mountain, to dedicate myself even more to prayer and meditation. But this does not mean abandoning the Church,” the pope told the crowd from the window of his residence in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican.