On Monday, the 85-year-old pontiff addressed an ordinary consistory in Vatican City saying he decided to resign his tenure due to frail health and old age.

The Pope confessed he no longer had the mental and physical strength to run the Catholic Church. He will officially step down at 8pm, on February 28.

Pope Benedict XVI is the first pontiff to resign the Holy See in some 600 years.

Voice of Russia, RIA