the catholic church is now officially popeless. benedict xvi boarded a helicopter and flew into retirement. details on his legacy and what is next for the catholic church. the dow flirting with an all-time high, up 36. and a slew of positive economic reports. when they tell you it's all horrible, tell them they are wrong. that's coming up. plus, look at that. the murder trial against a woman who stabbed her ex-boyfriend 27 times, shot him and slit his throat. takes another raunchy turn. it's all ahead, unless breaking news changes everything. on studio b. >> shepard: first, at 3:00 in new york city, a historic day for the catholic church. today pope benedict xvi stepped down and for catholics around the world, there's no pope. the pope left the vatican for the last time as the holy father, to huge round of applause. the helicopter took the pope to his traditional summer home 15 minutes southeast of the vatican. that building dates to the 1600s, it's not a bad retirement home. historians say in the days of world war ii, then o'pious

. >> 60 seconds away as i watch the clock from what will be a popeless moment. we keep these live pictures up and want to bring in christian who is in roam watching all of this. we are waiting for the moment. we are waiting for the doors to close. >> indeed we are. what is so amazing is the fact that the crowd is still there and waiting for that last possible second to see the clock tick eight here in rome. that means that the pope is no longer the pope. what was extraordinary in the message he did from the window, he declared his papacy over a full 2 1/2 hours over his retirement. he said i am no longer the pope. that was at 5:30 local time. he was eager to get that done. i am joined by john allen. this is an extraordinary moment. none of us have seen us before and neither have ouran set offers. what are we going to see in the next few moments? >> what's going to happen is at that magic hour that rolls around and the papacy ends and the empty chair begins, you will see the doors close and it's happening as we speak. their mandate is to protect the governing aut

. >> so to be clear, for who knows how many days the catholic church will be popeless. >> reporter: yeahnow, there is someone who is in charge. there is a dean of the college of cardinals who presides over the functioning -- the public functions and there is a figure called a camera lango. so it is not rudderless, but it is not the same thing as having a pope. let's put it this way, brooke, we'll go in a fairly head turningly brief period of time from having one pope to having none to in a sense having two because we will be in the unchartered waters of having a sitting pope and also a retired pope, a situation the church hasn't faced for centuries. and in this media saturated age, an absolute novelty. >> john, i'm coming back to you. deborah feyerick, you're in new york for me and we mentioned the united states has the fourth most catholics of any country in the world. you've been talking to a number of people there. what is their reaction to the news? >> reporter: you know, they are -- they are shocked as anybody. to put context of what was going on in america this morning, the cardina