christiane and monsignor irwin, i know that you're saying how this moment really struck you as you saw the helicopter and how special and amazing it was. but the look on his face when he landed, it was one of relief. >> reporter: it was amazing. amazing. just to let you know who he was actually meeting with and who was greeting him, according to the list that we've been given, there's cardinal bertello, president and govern and bishop who was secondary general and governor and the mayor of castel gandolfo and the parish priest of castel gandolfo. and do you know i want to turn to the monsignor for some very important record correcting on the shoes. we have said for years, ever since we watched this pope be elected in 2005, that he was wearing red prada shoes, i'm afraid we have been wrong. >> they are red shoes given to him because constantine gave him the privileges of being an emperor and he allowed him to wear red shoes and a red cape. frankly the papal shoe maker is up the block so it's not prada. so the devil may have worn prada but not this pope. >> reporter: so correcting it on

. >> monsignor irwin, can you hear me? you're in rome? the pope resigning is new, it's novel. could he be doing the church a favor, not just in terms of his own alleged capacity, but that he is creating an opportunity for newness, an opportunity to rethink standards? what do you think of that? >> i think two things. one, he's made a contribution already in a sense of inviting his cardinals and bishops to be a bit more collegial. and i think he inherited a papacy that was much larger than life. i think in one way benedict has lowered that a little bit. number two, it might be the papacy entering the modern world where people do retire and move on and i think in that sense all bets are off about the age of the new pope. >> that's interesting. when this broke as news, at least in the u.s., the perception was almost 100% negative. there must be a scandal, he must be tied to something, it must be vatileaks and there was other speculation that had to do with homosexuality and different types of extortion. however, when i saw it, at first blush