from my secretary of state who accompanied me out of loyalty, throughout all of these years and roman curia, including all of the people in different sectors worked for the holy see, there's many faces that people don't know about. that work in the shadow and in silence. every day. our faith and humility and all of those people were always firm support. were always reliable to me. a special thought to the church of rome, my diocese. i cannot forget the brothers and the bishops and all the consecrated people and the operation of god in pastoral visits and audiences and travels, i always felt a lot of after perfection and attention and i have felt close to each and every one of you with no distinctions. with true charity. which the heart of every shepherd must have and especially the bishop of rome. and every day, i brought each and every one of you in my prayer as a father would do. i would want for my good-bye and my thanks can reach everybody, the heart of the pope reaches the entire world and i wish to express my gratitude to the diplomatic body in the holy see. the great family of nation

and the relationship between the pope and the roman curia.er of things that could be done, you know, some of them more radical than others, but i'm thinking there may be an appetite for change even here in the vatican and that pope benedict may have sparked some creative thinking with this move. >> one of the things, though, we are, again, this might be fantasy, but is that we are at a time when, as you said, your eminence, young people are not necessarily relating, and you see, for instance, and i'm looking at numbers of the american catholics, where two-thirds disagree on issues like married priests and women in the priesthood. so do you see any appetite for some sort of council or something to open the windows of the church in the way that john xxiii did. >> i wonder what will probably see is much more along the lines of the new pope saying all of this is happening. it now falls to me to begin to address that and one of the areas of addressing that is much better use of communication, the meanings of communication. i think the voice of the

what has been missing, many feel, in this roman curia, vatican bureaucracy is a strong cardinal secretaryries and get everybody moving in the same direction. >> all right. george weigel, many thanks for your insight. appreciate that. that's a wrap of this hour. two-hour edition at moon today. next "up with chris hayes." hickp but she loved it so much... i told her it was homemade. everyone tells a little white lie now and then. but now she wants my recipe [ clears his throat ] [ softly ] she's right behind me isn't she? [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. [ clears his throat ] [ softly ] she's right behind me isn't she? it's been said that beauty is in the ewell...behold. der. behold water so blue it merges with the sky above. behold natural beauty above the sea, and far below. behold smiles so wide they stretch across the face of an entire nation. behold...the islands of the bahamas. [ woman ] too weak. wears off. been there. tried that. ladybug body milk? no thanks. [ female announcer ] stop searching and start repairing. eucerin professional repair moisturizes whil

recently wrote an op-ed that the next pope needs to straighten out the disastrous condition of the roman curia> these are important issues and it is important to discuss them in a serious way. this is not the set of dan brown novels. this is a real place, a real constitution with real people. there are serious problems. there is what one italian scholar of church history, a good friend of mine called a culture of corruption throughout italy itself. that has a tendency to seep inside the vatican under certain circumstances. the next pope has to make sure that this rather small and in many respects efficient bureaucracy turns into an ever more efficient instrument for his role as a pastor, a teacher and an evangelist. >> from what you know, george, how much did this play into the pope's decision? we know he feels that he didn't have the spiritual or physical strength to go on, and a lot of people have criticized what's going on inside the vatican, whether it is just administrative or in ways that it dealt with crisis like the prooez sex abuse scandal. was this a factor in his ultimate decision t

priorities for the cardinals going in you're most cardinals do not live in rome they're not part of the roman curia they look at these. these stories these headlines that we look at and they're aghast as much as anybody they want some reform in rome from top to bottom that's one of their priorities now whether the cardinals were italian or close to rome is that not happen so this is not new news. no but this is something they really i think there's kind of been a turning point here they really want to get this the roman bureaucracy the people bureaucracy under control trying to find a pope maybe outside europe next time do you think what are your thoughts on who might it be well that's the other big question are they going to reach out side of europe for the first time ever latin america africa asia that's where the growth market is for catholicism the church is booming in the southern hemisphere does it time to go for a pope who will represent where the future of the church really lies that's the other great choice facing these cardinals and and that could you know really determine the future of t

say, but we should also look for somebody with some pretty good managerial skills to bring the roman curian and not to -- so if that means some type of renewal, if that needs some type of attention, so be it. >> reporter: as one cardinal put it to me scott, there's so many things needed in the new pope that it would be almost impossible to find it all in one man, but they do know that they need to deal with the mess that is the roman catholic curia at the moment, the church governance and also the ongoing problem of the sex abuse scandal. that is going to weigh heavily on the new pope scott. >> alan thank you very much. the banner that we see there says pope benedict thank you and we love you. the people that we saw gathering outside the papal apartments in san de maso courtyard are some of the folks who have worked for the pope the household staff who have cared for him during his rein. there at the bottom of the picture you can just seen or you could just see the helipad of the vatican where the pope will be departing very shortly. mark phillips our veteran overseas correspondent, is in

about 45% work or have worked in the roman curia. more than 50% of european. nearly half of those are italian. about 34% come from asia, africa, latin america, 9.4% are from the united states and canada a little less with 3%. when you look at the makeup and the demographics there, what does that tell you? perhaps what the key issues they're going to be discussing in the conclave. you mentioned earlier, monsig r monsignor, the way we look at this as americans is very different than catholics across the world. >> there are some issues that will resonate more with the american church, others that might resonate with the european church and still others with the church in asia, south america, africa it looks like. one of the things pope benedict said this morning, he spoke of the caollege of cardinals as an orchestra, unity and diversity that bring about a harmony. speaking from his heart as a musician, a classical pianist and his love of music. there is such diversity in cultures and languages, one of the challenges, many of the cardinals are linguists but some o