professor john garvey joins us now.dent of the catholic university of america joining me by phone. president garvey, thank you for being with us. the big difference sshgs of course, that the pope is alive to witness the succession process, and there has got to be conversations along the margins tooz what would pope benedict xvi want. >> you got to wonder what affect that will have on the process, don't you? it isn't something we've seen in our lifetime or for centuries, for that matter. i don't think anybody has a clue. your guess is as good as mine. >> i was reading your statement, president garvey, and as the catholic university of america president, you spoke of his theological wisdom and what he imparted in the importance of catholic education. could you speak to that and to the reaction of young people as they look towards a change of leadership of the church? >> yes. to start with, the second point first, i've been talking to some of our students as well as my brothers and sisters about this, and one of the reacti

. >> reporter: john garvey, president of catholic university of america says the pope's visit five years ago left a lasting impression on campus. garvey admits the noun 895-year-old pontiff looks frail even back then, yet remained a giant figure. >> in some ways he is the spiritual leered of the world. >> whoever the next pope is going to be is going to need a lot of prayer and good smarts and an ability to reach out to people who are far and way in the church. >> reporter: pope benedict's had statements that seemed to be offensive to muslims jews and latin americas. still he will be remembered for his efforts in strengthening the catholic church, and its core beliefs. >> his legacy will be having followed pope john paul ii. (audio difficulty) (audio difficulty) (audio difficulty) that region represents 42% of the 1.23 billion catholics around the world. >>> pope benedict was inaugurated in 2005 and for the first time in recent history the leader of the catholic church is leaving while he is still alive. stacey cohen has been following the story since it broke early this morning. she is

joining us on the phone now is john garvey, president of the catholic university of america.prised andrea. i don't think it has happened in about 600 years. i will say i saw him at thanksgiving and he was mentally sharp but frail. so in that sense it is not so surprising. >> president garvey, what does it mean? and what needs to happen for the future of the koontz-wagner church? he also talked about the church is subject to rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance? >> in some ways he has been a great leader for these times because he was so intellectual. he wrote about love and our relationship with god. that is an important message, the first message we expect to hear from all popes. >>> is there a possible in an american cardinal is somewhere in the pipeline when this conclave is called they could be seriously considered? >> i suppose seriously considered. the last two popes have not been from italy. although it is a little bit of a long shot to predict an american. kind of like the kentucky derby, the predictions are always wrong. >>> again breaking news, po

john garvey, president of catholic university joining us on the phone. talk to you in the days ahead. >> thank you, tony and allison. >> pope benedict xvi has announced this morning he will be stepping down. he will resign his position affective february 28th. >> all right. we of course will be following that throughout the morning. big breaking news there. >>> in the meantime, have we forgotten the big story to the north? >> i have a relative up in boston. she hasn't had power since friday. 30 inches of snow on the ground. >> that's the worst part of it. >> i will say this: it is a mess but moist of the cities up there have really handled it well in terms of the preparation clearing the streets. they did a very good job. >> considering it was so much snow. >>> let's talk local weather. spring showers overnight. we're not concerned with any icing or presip around here today. 27 in boston. and we have a pretty good snow pack up across new england. 45 out in detroit. future cast. rain showers move through overnight. might be left over springle for parts of