i want to go to jim bittermann.ith a little bit of the style over the substance, 1.2 billion catholics are very keen to know even the smallest details about the papacy, about the person of the pope. and particularly about the person of the retiring pope. right down to his clothes. i'm just going to play a little bit of what was said yesterday at the vatican about what he'll be called after he steps down, what he'll be wearing in fact. >> he will wear a simple white cassack. very important point are the shoes. they will no longer be the red shoes that you've seen him wear, but he's chosen to keep brown shoes given to him on his recent trip to mexico. >> these are the details that people are really interested in, particularly those red shoes. and you can't see the picture right now, but i am in papal yellow around my neck. jim, you have covered many, many papal comings and goings. gives us your sense about what it is about this person that fascinates so many people. >> it's the office more than anything else, more tha

senior european correspondent jim bittermann is in vatican city with that for us.n we were checking in with you earlier, the pope was just arriving. so what did he say and how did he look? >> reporter: he looked reasonably good. he delivered about a 20 minute message and began by talking about the fact that he was going to be leaving the church. he thanked the audience, the people that had gathered for this regular papal audience. in fact the pilgrims that had gathered for their support and their love as he put it. he was certain the church would continue and he would like the pilgrims to pray for him and his successor. and then he went into the lenten message, the temptation of christ, 40 days in the wilderness and that the basis of the christian celebration of lent. he received tumultuous applause every time he mentioned it and also sustained applause at the end of his remarks this morning. so i would say he appeared buoyed up by the support he was getting. >> we're learning who are about his health. he recently underwent surgery. what are the details of that and

jim bittermann is following all of the developments from the vatican.reporter: well, zoraida, i think a little bit of reaction to surprise announcement on the streets of rome. people are digesting it now, and looking ahead and as you mentioned, what a lot of people are asking themselves, is exactly what does happen next. since no pope has resigned in six centuries, there is very little precedent for what happens next. but there are a few hints. as the resignation was announced, there will be a new pope by easter. they will gather in rome and get through the business of leichtingleicht i electing a new pope before that. they will not convene while the pope is still in office. they won't go into conclave before march 1st. since the pope stepping down february 28th. the election process could be quite short. with jet travel it no longer takes weeks for them to gather. they could arrive very early in march what will be missing with this pope's resignation is the period of mourning and reflection that takes place when a pope dies. it's an open question if th

our senior european correspondent jim bittermann is on the phone in vatican city this morning. i don't know if the pope has actually come out yet, jim, but this will be the first time that he actually addresses what was the most shocking announcement that we heard come out from vatican city. do you think that he will address that announcement right off the bat? >> i think so. i don't know if he'll do it right off the bat, but i have a feeling he'll at least have mention of it during his audience this morning. we're expecting a lot larger crowd this morning since this will be one of his last pay pal audiences. there's still basically two weeks between now and the day he resigns. and there will be another two wednesdays at which he will do pay ppal audiences. the significance of today, however, will be a little later on today when he celebrates what will be his last large mass at st. peter's for ash wednesday for the start of the lenten season in the church calendar. >> so we were learning more about the pope's health, that he actually recently underwent surgery. and they're just

our senior international correspondent jim bittermann is in rome. he's joining us now from st. ng mentioned right now? >> well, we started off this afternoon with about three names being mentioned. now the list is about 12. it just seeps to expand as the day goes on. a couple of names you hear most often is the canadian marc ouellet, cardinal here in the vatican. two candidates who were around last time around, angelo scola, archbishop in milan. and the archbishop in vienna. there are a lot of names out there. one of the things they say, wolf, if you go into a conclave as a pope, you come out as a cardinal. basically, speculation really doesn't do much good. we were last time around, we here at the vatican were watching and speculating quite a bit and, in fact, got proven wrong. so we were surprised at cardinal ratzinger got elevated to pope benedict xvi so plenty of surprises. i don't think anybody expected this to happen the way it did this morning. >> yeah, we were all stunned when we got word early this morning. when do we expect a decision from the college of cardinals? >>

jim bittermann, with st.eters behind you, thank you for being with us. >>> charred remains found out in the burned out cabin where bliss believe suspect christopher dorner was hiding out. is the case really over? >>> a teen stole a school bus and went on a joyride. why he said he did it. it will have you shaking your head for certain. hi. hi. i'm here to pick up some cacti. it should be under stephens. the verizon share everything plan for small business. get a shareable pool of data... got enough joshua trees? ... on up to 25 devices. so you can spend less time... yea, the golden barrels... managing wireless costs and technology and more time driving your business potential. looks like we're going to need to order more agaves... ah! oh! ow! ... and more bandages. that's powerful. shareable data plus unlimited talk and text. now save $50 on a droid razr maxx hd by motorola. new griddle-melts to yourime usual breakfast sandwich. a lot more flavor. [ anouncer ] ihop's new griddle melts... made fresh and hot! ha

i want to turn to john allen and jim bittermann.y what he said, that he felt his strength ebbing away from him, and that this is not the usual fair that we hear from this pope, this personal, personal attribution. >> you're 100% right. i covered both john paul 2 rii benedict xvi. john paul would wear his heart on the sleeve. he talked about his mind and his heart all the time. benedict as always been much more reluctant to get that glimpse of what's going on inside. i think it's part of the man's humility, but he wanted to to keep himself out of the story. today however he set that normal reserve aside and he gave us a remarkable look at what was in his mind and his heart as he reached this momentous decision. >> and i can't help but think of all the things that he obliquely referred to, and when he said it was time for a more vigorous both physically and mentally person to carry this church into the future and also to deal with the things that he referred to in his speech. you were talking just this week to a journalist who has wri

there have only been ten popes in all of history, and a number of popes resigned, and right to jim bittermanng us by phone. very, very unusual. the reasons cited, the pope's age and health. tell us about the pope's health. some of the challenges over the last year or so. >> hey, he has had all -- he had what for him was a fairly rigorous travel schedule. his predecessor took more than 110 trips while he was in office. pope benedict xvi traveled a lot for a rather elderly man to begin with. he began his paper acy at an advanced age and one of the things a lot of people had picked him as kind of an interim pope, he will hold on for a while because of advanced age and would eventually die and a new pope would be elected. of course, what we're seeing is something that just as you mentioned just leading in totally unprecedented in modern times in the church, and that's the pope resigned, and he said that his predecessor, many of them suffered from ill health, paul 6:00 was in not very good shape at all, john paul -- john paul xxiii, and pius, a number of them ended their reigns in ill health. mayb

we're going to head over to jim bittermann who's at st. peter's square. i know you said yesterday was the day to be there but i imagine a lot of people are showing up today as well. >> reporter: sure there are. in fact one of the things i always say in the news business is you should have been here yesterday. the fact is that yesterday was the big day here. there were tens of thousands of people out here for the pope's last meeting with the people. today it's more intimate. he's with the cardinals, as we saw this morning, and he'll be having a lunch with the cardinals, very intimate lunch before he flies off to castel g gandolfo. sophie halladay and billy lease are both here from london. what brings you here today? >> we're here to absorb all the atmosphere. obviously the wonderful weather and hopefully catch a glimpse of the pope on his final farewell from the vatican. i harear that he's going to be leaving in his helicopter so we'll be looking up to see if we can see a wave from the pope. >> you're not disappointed that you won't be seeing him in person

jim bittermann, you're out there among the people. what is the mood?een crowds. yesterday was the big day for the public but now there are thousands of people gathering here. they want to get a glimpse of that papal helicopter as it goes. kind of typical of the people out here are the faithful like anna, a polish lady. i have to tell you about her story because she doesn't speak english but she has a son in the vatican who's in the seminary there. she's been trying for weeks to get for a friend of hers an apostolic blessing signed by the pope and today finally she was here for 7:00 mass this morning, she's been here all day and finally this afternoon she got an apostolic blessing signed by pope benedict xvi on the last day of his reign. and that's really quite a souvenir, i would think. chris, erin. >> certainly is a souvenir. >> also a good reminder how all these people come from all over the world, erin. she's from poland. >> and when you talk about the celebration of what's happening and of his life, remember when he came to the united states. >> su