Pope was feeling burden of his age, says brother

2008

February 5: Pope changes a Latin prayer for Good Friday services by traditionalist Catholics, deleting a reference to Jews and their "blindness" but still calling for them to accept Jesus.

2009

January 24: Pope causes uproar by lifting ex-communications of four ultra-traditionalist bishops, including a Holocaust denier.

2010

November 6: Benedict arrives in Spain for a two-day visit. He attacks abortion and gay marriage, recently legalized in Spain, in a Mass to consecrate Barcelona's iconic Sagrada Familia church in another pointed criticism of what he called Spain's "aggressive secularism".

2011

July 25: The Vatican recalls its ambassador to Ireland following

an unprecedented rebuke of the Holy See by the Irish parliament in the wake of a report that accused church authorities of covering up sexual abuse.

2012

January 6: Benedict names 22 new cardinals, increasing the chances the next pontiff will be a conservative European.

October 6: A Vatican court finds Benedict's former butler guilty of stealing sensitive documents and sentences him to 18 months in jail

ALSO READ

Court charges Gopal Kanda with raping former air hostess Geetika Sharma

1993 Mumbai blasts: SC rejects actor Sanjay Dutt's review petition

China has agreed to consider improving Brahmaputra water mechanism: Khurshid

Pawan Bansal-Mahesh Kumar meeting likely to figure in CBI questioning