Capacity crowd gathers to offer prayers, gratitude for Holy Father

PROVIDENCE — In the final hours of his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI stepped off the gleaming white helicopter that had whisked him from the Vatican City Heliport into the twilight of his papacy, telling those gathered to receive him at Castel Gandolfo, the papal retreat — and millions watching on televisions around the world — that he was a “simple pilgrim, who begins the last stage of his pilgrimage on this earth.”

Bishop Tobin’s Homily from the Mass of Thanksgiving.

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