From: Ouko joachim omolo
The News Dispatch with Omolo Beste in images
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2013

The Vatican has said that the moment the pope’s powers officially expire at 1900 GMT, the ex-pontiff will officially be known by the new title of “Roman Pontiff Emeritus” although he will still be addressed as “Your Holiness”.

He will also keep his papal name of “Benedict XVI” and will not be referred by his original name as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in more firsts for the Vatican, where the traditional system is geared towards popes dying in office.

At exactly 8 p.m. Thursday, the Swiss Guards who protect him will leave their posts and return to Rome in a symbolic act to signify that the papal chair is empty. This morning, Benedict will hold an audience with all the cardinals in Rome, including those who have traveled to mark his last public audience, and including many of the cardinal electors who will choose his replacement.

That will be his last opportunity before the conclave to express his wishes for the future of the church, and it would be a prime opportunity to tell his princes to clean up the so-called house of God.

Around 5 p.m. Thursday, Benedict will leave Vatican City for the last time as pope. He will be flown by helicopter to the pontifical summer residence in Castel Gandolfo in the Roman foothills, where he will stay until the restoration work on the Vatican City monastery where he will live is complete.

While Cardinal Keith O’Brien has rescued himself from conclave, Cardinal Roger Mahony intends to help select a new pope in Rome despite calls from some critics that he withdraws from the process in the wake of revelations about his actions in the priest sex-abuse scandal.

The day Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation almost two weeks ago, Mahony wrote on his blog that he looked forward to participating in the conclave of cardinals in Rome to elect Benedict’s successor.

That stance elicited some criticism given that last month the Los Angeles Archdiocese stripped Mahony, its former archbishop, of his public duties after it was revealed that he plotted to conceal child molestation by priests.

But Mahony indicated via Twitter on Friday that he still would be part of the sequestered papal selection process. On Saturday, a group called Catholics United delivered a petition with nearly 10,000 signatures asking that Mahony not participate in the conclave because of the abuse scandals that happened under his watch, said Chris Pumpelly, spokesman for Catholics United.

Undoubtedly, his presence in Rome will anger and disappoint many who feel he should not be performing duties there. Mahony has already been told not to perform public duties in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. However, he “remains a priest in good standing” according to the Archdiocese and he is fully permitted to participate in the papal conclave.

According to the list of cardinals to elect the new pope, the name of Cardinal O’Brien is still on even though he withdrew himself from participating. Conclave kicks off on March 4, third Sunday of Lent.

Here is a list of cardinal-electors, from oldest to youngest, eligible to vote for a pope in a conclave. Cardinals who are under age 80 when the “sede vacante” begins Feb. 28, 2013, are eligible to vote. There will be 117 cardinal-electors on that date.

1. Severino Poletto of Turin, Italy

2. Juan Sandoval Iniguez of Guadalajara, Mexico.

3. Godfried Danneels of Mechelen-Brussels.

4. Francisco Javier Errazuriz Ossa of Santiago de Chile.

5. Raffaele Farina, retired head of the Vatican Secret Archives and the Vatican Library.

6. Geraldo Majella Agnelo of Sao Salvador da Bahia, Brazil.

7. Joachim Meisner of Cologne, Germany.

8. Raul Vela Chiriboga of Quito, Ecuador.

9. Giovanni Battista Re, former prefect of the Congregation for Bishops.

10. Dionigi Tettamanzi of Milan.

11. Francesco Monterisi, retired secretary of the Congregation for Bishops.

12. Claudio Hummes, retired prefect of the Congregation for Clergy.

13. Carlos Amigo Vallejo of Seville, Spain.

14. Paolo Sardi, a former official in the Vatican Secretariat of State.

15. Paul Josef Cordes, past president of Cor Unum.

16. Franc Rode, retired prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

17. Tarcisio Bertone, secretary of state.

18. Julius Darmaatmadja, Jakarta, Indonesia.

19. Jean-Baptiste Pham Minh Man, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

20. Giovanni Lajolo, former president of the commission governing Vatican City State.

21. Antonios Naguib, Alexandria, Egypt.

22. Justin Rigali of Philadelphia.

23. Velasio De Paolis, papal delegate overseeing reform of the Legionaries of Christ and Regnum Christi.

24. Santos Abril Castello, archpriest of Basilica of St. Mary Major.

25. Jose da Cruz Policarpo, Lisbon, Portugal.

26. Roger Mahony, retired archbishop of Los Angeles.

27. Julio Terrazas Sandoval of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia.

28. Ivan Dias, former prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.

29. Karl Lehmann of Mainz, Germany.

30. William Joseph Levada, retired prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

31. Anthony Olubunmi Okogie of Lagos, Nigeria.

32. Jean-Claude Turcotte of Montreal.

33. Antonio Maria Rouco Varela of Madrid.

34. Jaime Ortega Alamino of Havana.

35. Nicolas Lopez Rodriguez of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

36. Ennio Antonelli of Florence, Italy.

37. Theodore-Adrien Sarr of Dakar, Senegal.

38. Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

39. Francis George of Chicago.

40. Audrys Juozas Backis Vilnius, Lithuania.

41. Raymundo Damasceno Assis of Aparecida, Brazil.

42. Attilio Nicora, president emeritus of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See.

43. Lluis Martinez Sistach of Barcelona, Spain.

44. Antonio Maria Veglio, president of the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travelers.

45. Paolo Romeo of Palermo, Italy.

46. Francesco Coccopalmerio, president of the Pontifical Council for Interpreting Legislative Texts.

47. Keith O’Brien of St. Andrews and Edinburgh, Scotland.???

48. Manuel Monteiro de Castro, head of the Apostolic Penitentiary.

49. Carlo Caffarra, of Bologna, Italy.

50. Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes.

51. Edwin F. O’Brien, grand master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre.

52. Stanislaw Dziwisz of Krakow, Poland.

53. John Tong Hon of Hong Kong.

54. Sean Brady of Armagh, Northern Ireland.

55. Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya of Kinshasa, Congo.

56. Zenon Grocholewski, prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education.

57. Telesphore Toppo, of Ranchi, India.

58. Bechara Rai, Maronite patriarch.

59. Agostino Vallini, papal vicar for Rome.

60. Donald W. Wuerl of Washington.

61. Gabriel Zubeir Wako of Khartoum, Sudan.

62. Wilfrid F. Napier of Durban, South Africa.

63. George Pell of Sydney.

64. Angelo Scola of Milan.

65. Norberto Rivera Carrera of Mexico City.

66. Jorge Urosa Savino of Caracas, Venezuela.

67. Ruben Salazar Gomez of Bogota, Colombia.

68. Giuseppe Bertello, president of the Governorate of Vatican City State.

69. Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture.

70. Andre Vingt-Trois of Paris.

71. Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

72. Angelo Bagnasco of Genoa, Italy.

73. Domenico Calcagno, president of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See.

74. Jean-Louis Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.

75. George Alencherry of Ernakulam-Angamaly, major archbishop of Syro-Malabar Catholic Church.

76. Dominik Duka of Prague, Czech Republic.

77. Crescenzio Sepe of Naples, Italy.

78. Giuseppe Versaldi, president of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See.

79. Angelo Comastri, archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica.

80. Leonardo Sandri, prefect of the Congregation for Eastern Churches.

81. Juan Cipriani Thorne of Lima, Peru.

82. John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan of Abuja, Nigeria.

83. Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops.

84. Sean Patrick O’Malley of Boston.

85. Polycarp Pengo of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

86. Mauro Piacenza, prefect of the Congregation for Clergy.

87. Jean-Pierre Ricard of Bordeaux, France.

88. Oswald Gracias of Mumbai, India.

89. John Njue of Nairobi, Kenya.

90. Christoph Schonborn of Vienna.

91. Robert Sarah, president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum.

92. Stanislaw Rylko, president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity.

93. Vinko Puljic of Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina.

94. Antonio Canizares Llovera, prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments.

95. Fernando Filoni, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.

96. Thomas C. Collins of Toronto.

97. Giuseppe Betori of Florence, Italy.

98. Joao Braz de Aviz, prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

99. Albert Malcom Ranjith of Colombo, Sri Lanka.

100. Raymond L. Burke, prefect of the Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signature.

101. Peter Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

102. Francisco Robles Ortega of Guadalajara, Mexico.

103. Josip Bozanic of Zagreb, Croatia.

104. Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston.

105 Odilo Pedro Scherer of Sao Paulo.

106. James M. Harvey, archpriest of the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.

107. Kazimierz Nycz of Warsaw, Poland.

108. Timothy M. Dolan of New York.

109. Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

110. Philippe Barbarin of Lyon, France.

111. Peter Erdo of Esztergom-Budapest, Hungary.

112. Willem Jacobus Eijk of Utrecht, Netherlands.

113. Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising, Germany.

114. Rainer Maria Woelki of Berlin.

115. Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila, Philippines.

116. Baselios Cleemis Thottunkal, major archbishop of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church.

117. Walter Kasper, president emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
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Real change must come from ordinary people who refuse to be taken hostage by the weapons of politicians in the face of inequality, racism and oppression, but march together towards a clear and unambiguous goal.

-Anne Montgomery, RSCJ UN Disarmament Conference, 2002