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“His age is weighing on him,” Ratzinger said of his brother. “At this age my brother wants more rest.”

Benedict emphasized that carrying out the duties of being pope — the leader of more than a billion Roman Catholics worldwide — requires “both strength of mind and body.”

“After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths due to an advanced age are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry,” he told the cardinals. “I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only by words and deeds but no less with prayer and suffering.

“However, in today’s world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the barque of St. Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary — strengths which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me.”

Benedict’s resignation could open the door for the Church’s first non-European leader, with a Canadian and an Argentinean considered among the leading candidates to become the next pope.

Cardinal Marc Ouellet, formally the archbishop of Quebec City, has the best odds of replacing Pope Benedict XVI according to an Irish betting site, at 5 to 2.

Cardinal Ouellet, 68, became head of the Congregation of Bishops in 2010, essentially the Vatican’s top staff director.