A look back at Pope Benedict XVI

Pope Benedict XVI announced on Feb. 11 that he will resign on Feb. 28. The 85-year-old pope announced his decision in Latin during a meeting of Vatican cardinals. Benedict is the first pontiff to resign in nearly 600 years.

‘‘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.

Pictured: Pope Benedict XVI delivered his blessing at the end of a meeting of Vatican cardinals.

Pope Benedict XVI left after announcing his resignation.

Young Joseph Ratzinger posed for a photo in 1943 as a German Air Force assistant during World War II.

Joseph Ratzinger celebrated Mass at a mountain site near the Bavarian town of Ruhpolding, Germany, in the summer of 1952. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected pope on April 19, 2005, and took the name Benedict XVI.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, appeared at the Foreign Press Club in Rome on March 16, 1987.

German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger blessed the coffin of Pope John Paul II during his funeral Mass in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican on April 8, 2005.

Newly elected Pope Benedict XVI greeted pilgrims from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica after his election on April 9, 2005.

Archbishop Piero Marini draped Pope Benedict XVI with the pallium during his installment Mass in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican on April 24, 2005.

Pope Benedict XVI waved as he rode on the popemobile through St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican following his installment Mass on April 14, 2005.

Pope Benedict XVI saluted the believers during a meeting with young Catholics in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican in preparation of the XXI World Youth Day on April 6, 2006.

Pope Benedict XVI waved to wellwishers as he lleft the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris following a vespers service on Sept. 12, 2008.

Pope Benedict XVI arrived in the popemobile to celebrate a Mass on the outskirts of Angola’s seaside capital, Luanda, on March 22, 2009.

Pope Benedict XVI offered a nun the Holy Communion during Holy Thursday Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on April 9, 2009.

Pope Benedict XVI stood by the salvaged remains of Pope Celestine V in the 13th-century Santa Maria di Collemaggio Basilica on April 28, 2009.

Pope Benedict XVI visited the Karitas Hospital in the West Bank city of Bethlehem on May 13, 2009.

Pope Benedict XVI addressed the faithful during the “Urbi et Orbi’’ (To the city and the World) message, at the end of the Easter Mass in St. Peter’s Square on April 4, 2010.

President and Mrs. Obama met with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican on July 10, 2009.

Pope Benedict XVI greeted participants of the first European Meeting of University Students at the Vatican on July 11, 2009.

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth stood with Pope Benedict XVI as they greeted school children at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, Scotland, on Sept. 16, 2010.

Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon (left) looked on as Pope Benedict XVI is greeted by children at the airport in Silao, Mexico, on Marcg 23, 20112.

Pope Benedict XVI waved from the popemobile wearing a Mexican sombrero as he arrived to give a Mass in Bicentennial Park near Silao, Mexico, on March 25, 2012.

Pope Benedict XVI met with Cuban leader Fidel Castro in Havana on March 28, 2012.