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ภาพประกอบ

1.พระกำแพงลีลา

2.หลวงพ่อทวดเนื้อว่านปี ๙๗

3.พระท่ากระดาน

4.พระกรุบ้านกร่างพรายคู่

5.เหรียญหลวงพ่อพุ่ม สวย/หายากสุดๆ 

6.พระรอดกรุวัดมหาวัน เนื้อสีชมภู หายากมากๆ

7.เหรียญหลวงพ่อพวง วัดหนองกระโดน

9.

8.หลวงพ่อเงินพิมพ์ขี้ตาสามชาย

9.พระซุ้มกอพิมพ์ใหญ่

 

10.เหรียญหลวงปู่จันทร์

11.หลวงพ่อแดงวัดเขาบันไดอิฐ เนื้อเงิน

12.เหรียญหลวงพ่อทวดรุ่นแรกเนื้อทองแดง

13.พระสมเด็จวัดระฆังเนื้อมวลสาร สวยสุดๆ



ม.โชคชัย ทรงเสี่ยงไชย

How many Roman Catholics are there in the world?

There are an estimated 1.2 billion Roman Catholics in the world, according to Vatican figures. More than 40% of the world's Catholics live in Latin America - but Africa has seen the biggest growth in Catholic congregations in recent years.

Latin America accounts for 483 million Catholics, or 41.3% of the total Catholic population. Of the 10 countries in the world with the most Catholics, four are in Latin America. Brazil has the highest Catholic population of any country at more than 150 million. Italy has the most Catholics in Europe, with 57 million, while DR Congo has the biggest Catholic population in Africa, ranking ninth in the world with almost 36 million.
Global shift Since 1970, Catholicism has seen a global shift southwards - the proportion of Catholics living in Europe has declined, while Africa has seen a growth in the number of Catholics - from 45 million in 1970 to 176 million in 2012. Asia has also seen a growth in Catholicism and now represents almost 12% of the total Catholic population in the world, or 137 million people.

Voting cardinals There are 117 cardinals eligible to take part in the Conclave - the election of the next Pope, but only 115 will take part.
There were 118 at the time of the Pope's announcement but Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, Archbishop Emeritus of Kiev, turned 80 before the resignation takes effect on 28 February so is excluded from voting.
On 21 February, Cardinal Julius Riyadi Darmaatmadja, the 78 year-old Archbishop Emeritus of Jakarta, ruled himself out of travelling to Rome due to the "progressive deterioration" of his vision.
The resignation of Britain's most senior Catholic cleric Cardinal Keith O'Brien on 25 February - following allegations he denies of inappropriate behaviour towards priests - also rules him out of the voting, meaning Britain will be unrepresented.
Sixty seven of the cardinal-electors were appointed by Benedict XVI and 60 are European - with 21 of those being Italian.

Church law says that anyone baptised a Catholic is eligible to be elected as Pope - but for the past 600 years the new pontiff has always been chosen from among the cardinals. Ten cardinals have been identified as potential frontrunners - including three from Europe, but there is speculation that the new pontiff may come from among the church's growth areas in Latin America and Africa.

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Pope Benedict speaks of church's stormy waters in final papal audience

By Laura Smith-Spark and Barbie Latza Nadeau, CNN

February 27, 2013 -- Updated 1501 GMT (2301 HKT)

Pope: 'Deeply grateful for prayers'

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Benedict XVI says there were "times when the Lord seemed to sleep" in past 8 years
• Benedict: The Roman Catholic Church has been through stormy waters, but God won't let it sink"
• I really felt all the support and all the love, the prayers," says a priest in the crowd
• He is to leave office at 8 p.m. Thursday for a life of seclusion and prayer

Rome (CNN) -- In front of rapt crowds, Pope Benedict XVI spoke of moments of struggle as well as joy Wednesday during his final public address from a stage set up in St. Peter's Square.

In an unusually personal message, he said there had been "many days of sunshine" but also "times when the water was rough ... and the Lord seemed to sleep."

But even as the church passes through stormy seas, God will "not let her sink," he added, in what was his final general audience before he steps down Thursday evening.

Those words will be seen by many as a comment on the series of child sex abuse scandals and corruption claims that have rocked the Roman Catholic Church in the course of his pontificate.

Pope: 'My strength has diminished'

Pope emotional in final public audience

Pope Benedict arrives for final audience

How the next pope will be chosen

Benedict recounted how when he was asked to be pope eight years ago, he had prayed for God's guidance and had felt his presence "every day" since.

"It was a part of the journey of the church that has had moments of joy and light, but also moments that were not easy," he said.

Vatican reveals Pope Benedict's new title

'Tough choices'

Dressed all in white and looking serene, the pope used his last general audience to call for a renewal of faith and speak of his own spiritual journey through eight years as leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics.

Benedict thanked the cardinals, the clergy in Rome, Vatican officials and priests worldwide for their work, as well as their congregations, saying "the heart of a pope extends to the whole world."

Knowing his strength was fading, he had taken the step of resignation well aware of its gravity and novelty, but also "with a deep peace of mind," he said.

"Loving the church also means having the courage to make tough choices," he said, as he called on the faithful to pray for him and the new pope.

Benedict gave an insight into the life of the pontiff, describing it as without any kind of privacy, with his time devoted entirely to the church -- perhaps particularly difficult for a man known for his love of scholarship.

His life in retirement will be "simply a return to the private place. My decision is to forgo the exercise of active ministry, not revoke it. In order to return to private life, not to a life of travel, meetings, receptions, conferences and so on," he said.

As he finished, cheers erupted from the tens of thousands gathered in the square -- acknowledged by Benedict with an open-armed embrace.

'Support and love'

Corruption casts shadow over Vatican

Pope's legacy with pedophile priests

The final days of Benedict's papacy

What's next for Pope Benedict?

Benedict's final papal audience

Vatican officials said 50,000 tickets had been handed out for Benedict's last general audience -- but authorities said they had prepared for as many as 200,000 people to show up to witness the historic moment in person.

The pope in retirement: What to expect

Benedict, who spoke first in Italian, also gave greetings in French, German and English, among other languages, reflecting the church's global reach.

CNN iReporter Joel Camaya, a priest from the Philippines who is studying in Rome, said it was very moving to be among those gathered in the huge plaza.

Waves of applause rose up to meet Benedict, especially when he addressed the pilgrims in different languages. "I really felt all the support and all the love, the prayers, from those who were present," he said.

After the pope left, people's mood was festive, with many chatting or singing, Camaya said, but at the same time nostalgic because it's the last time they will hear Benedict speak.

"Especially for people who have got used coming here for the audience and for the (Sunday) Angelus, it's something to be missed," he said.

Those lucky enough to have tickets for the final audience listened from seats in front of St. Peter's Basilica. Among them were many of the Roman Catholic Church's senior clergy. Others packed around the edges of the square and surrounding side streets, hoping to catch a glimpse of the pontiff.

Among the crowds were groups of pilgrims who had traveled to Rome for the special occasion, as well as local residents and curious visitors keen to share in the moment.

Opinion: Benedict a pope aware of his flaws

Benedict arrived and left in his Popemobile, allowing him to pass close by many people in St. Peter's Square.

Standing in the glass-topped vehicle, flanked by security, he waved as he slowly made his way along pathways through the crowds. Some waved flags and banners as they stood under cold but clear skies.

Normally in winter, the pope would give his weekly Wednesday general audience inside a hall within Vatican City, but the event was moved outside because of the anticipated huge crowds.

Pontiff emeritus

The pope didn't give the usual brief personal greetings to people afterward, but was to meet with delegations of heads of state in Vatican City.

Benedict, who stunned the world's Catholics when he announced his resignation just over two weeks ago, will leave office at 8 p.m. local time Thursday.

At that point, a transition period will begin, as around 115 cardinals gather in Rome to pick a successor in a secretive election known as a conclave.

The Vatican has been rewriting the rules to cope with an almost unprecedented situation -- Benedict is the first pope to resign in nearly 600 years.

He will meet with the cardinals Wednesday and Thursday, before being flown by helicopter to the papal summer residence at Castel Gandolfo.

Pope to resign: Your thoughts

There, from a balcony, he will greet crowds one last time before his resignation takes effect and the Swiss Guards, who by tradition protect the pope, ceremonially leave the residence's gate.

More details were given Tuesday of how the 85-year-old's life in retirement will play out.

He will keep the papal title Benedict XVI, rather than reverting to the name Joseph Ratzinger, and will be referred to as "his holiness," said the Rev. Federico Lombardi, a Vatican spokesman.

He will also go by the title his holiness "pontiff emeritus" or "pope emeritus."

Interference fears

Pope Benedict XVI wearing red shoes.

Living out of the public eye in a small monastery within Vatican City, Benedict will wear a simple white robe, without the papal red cape, and will swap his red shoes for brown ones. He is expected to devote his time to prayer and study.

Catholic author Michael Walsh told CNN he was unsurprised by Benedict's desire for more privacy.

"He's a rather private man. He wants to get back to his books and his cats, he wants to get back to prayer," he said. "He's obviously coming towards the end of his life -- he's 85 -- so I understand that."

But, Walsh added, "what I don't understand is that he says he wants to be part of it all, which could be disastrous if you take it at face value," referring to Benedict's promise not to abandon the church.

"The notion that you have two people that claim to be pope, in a sense, is really going to be very confusing," Walsh said.

Vatican officials have said they don't anticipate any interference from Benedict as a new pope takes office.

However, his influence will be felt in as much as he appointed 67 of the cardinals who will enter the conclave.

Whoever his successor may be will have plenty on his plate, from allegations swirling in the Italian media that gay clergy may have made themselves vulnerable to blackmail by male prostitutes -- a claim forcefully denied by the Vatican -- to the festering issue of the church's handling of child abuse by priests.

Scandal flared again over the weekend, as Scotland's Roman Catholic archbishop was accused in a UK newspaper report of "inappropriate behavior" with priests. Cardinal Keith O'Brien, who contests the allegations, resigned Monday and said he would not attend the conclave.

The Most Rev. Philip Tartaglia, archbishop of Glasgow, will take his place until a new archbishop is appointed, the Vatican said Wednesday. "These are painful and distressing times," Tartaglia is quoted as saying.

The Vatican said Monday that a report by three cardinals into leaks of secret Vatican documents, ordered by Benedict last year and seen only by him, would be passed on to the new pontiff.

Opinion: How next pope must tackle child sex abuse

Cardinals' conclave

Meanwhile, the cardinals who must elect the new pope are already gathering in Rome, Lombardi said.

The dean cardinal will on Friday summon the cardinals to a general congregation, Lombardi said. That could come as soon as Monday, although the date is not yet fixed.

The cardinal-electors will then decide exactly when to hold the conclave, during which they will select a peer via paper ballot. The voting process will end when only when one cardinal gains two-thirds support.

After his resignation, Benedict, who cited the frailty of age as the reason he resigned, will no longer use the Fisherman's Ring, the symbol of the pope, Lombardi said. The ring will be destroyed, along with Benedict's papal seal, after his departure from office.

Smoke signals: How is a new pope elected?

CNN's Barbie Latza Nadeau reported from Rome and Laura Smith-Spark wrote and reported from London. Vatican correspondent John Allen and Sarah Brown contributed to this report.

Pope readies for final audience on resignation eve

AFP News – 51 minutes ago

• View PhotoPope Benedict XVI celebrates his last Sunday prayers before stepping down from the …
• View PhotoProfile of Pope Benedict XVI who will hold the last audience of his pontificate in …

Pope Benedict XVI will hold the last audience of his pontificate in St Peter's Square on Wednesday on the eve of his historic resignation as leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics.

Tens of thousands of pilgrims are expected at the Vatican to bid a final farewell to an 85-year-old pope who abruptly cut short his pontificate by declaring he was too weak in body and mind to keep up with the modern world.
The Vatican says 50,000 people have obtained tickets for the event but many more may come and city authorities are preparing for 200,000, installing metal detectors in the area, deploying snipers and setting up field clinics.
No parking has been allowed in the zone since 10:00 pm Tuesday, and cars were to be barred entirely from 7:00 am on Wednesday.
The weekly audience, which is exceptionally being held in St Peter's Square because of the numbers expected, is to begin at around 10:30 am (0930 GMT) and usually lasts around an hour with a mixture of prayers and religious instruction from the pope.
Benedict will be the first pope to step down since the Middle Ages -- a break with Catholic tradition that has worried conservatives but kindled the hopes of Catholics around the world who want a breath of new life in the Church.
Rome has been gripped by speculation over what prompted Benedict to resign and who the leading candidates might be to replace him.
Rumours and counter-rumours in the Italian media suggest cut-throat behind-the-scenes lobbying, prompting the Vatican to condemn what it has called "unacceptable pressure" to influence the papal election.
Campaign groups have also lobbied the Vatican to exclude two cardinals accused of covering up child sex abuse from the upcoming election conclave.
The Vatican has said Benedict will receive the title of "Roman pontiff emeritus" and can still be addressed as "Your Holiness" and wear the white papal cassock after he officially steps down at 1900 GMT on Thursday.
Just before that time, the Vatican said Benedict will be whisked off by helicopter to the papal summer residence of Castel Gandolfo near Rome where he will begin a life out of the public eye.
Benedict will wave from the residence's balcony one last time before retreating to a private chapel and, as he has said, a life "hidden from the world".
On the hour he formally loses his powers as sovereign pontiff, the liveried Swiss Guard that traditionally protects popes will leave the residence.
The shock of the resignation and its unprecedented nature in the Church's modern history has left the Vatican sometimes struggling to explain the implications and Benedict's future status -- from the banal to the theological.
Some Catholics find it hard to come to terms with the idea that someone who was elected in a supposedly divinely inspired vote could simply resign.
The Vatican has said Benedict will lose his power of divine infallibility -- a sort of supreme authority in doctrinal matters -- as soon as he steps down.
The Vatican has also explained that the personalised gold Fisherman's Ring traditionally used to seal papal documents -- a key symbol of the office -- will be destroyed by a special cardinal, as is customary in Catholic tradition.
Benedict has also chosen to swap his trademark red shoes for a brown pair given to him by artisans in Mexico during a trip last year.
Starting next week, cardinals from around the world will begin a series of meetings to decide what the priorities for the Catholic Church should be, set a start date for the conclave and consider possible candidates for pope.
The conclave -- a centuries-old tradition with an elaborate ritual -- is supposed to be held within 15 to 20 days of the death of the pope, but Benedict has given special dispensation for the cardinals to bring that date forward.
Cardinals have been flying in from around the world including US prelate Roger Mahony, a former archbishop of Los Angeles stripped of all church duties for mishandling and covering up sex abuse claims against dozens of priests.
A total of 115 "cardinal electors" are scheduled to take part after another voter, British cardinal Keith O'Brien said he would not be taking part after allegations emerged that he made unwanted advances towards priests in the 1980s.

More about the story

• Emotional pope celebrates final Sunday prayers
• Vatican says Benedict XVI will have title 'pope emeritus'
• Resigning pope to meet priests after hypocrisy warning
• Pope urges end to hypocrisy at final mass
• Cardinal's departure darkens mood as pope allows early conclave
• Countdown begins to a frail pope's humble farewell
• Pope announces shock resignation in historic move

Insight: Syria rebels bolstered by new arms but divisions remain

By Mariam Karouny

BEIRUT | Tue Feb 26, 2013 3:22pm EST

(Reuters) - Syrian rebels have received advanced weapons aimed at narrowing the arms gap with President Bashar al-Assad's forces and reinforcing a new rebel military command which Western countries hope can dilute the strength of Islamist fighters.
Several rebel commanders and fighters told Reuters that a shipment which reached Syria via Turkey last month comprised shoulder-held and other mobile equipment including anti-aircraft and armor-piercing weapons, mortars and rocket launchers.
Rebels told Reuters the weapons, along with money for cash payments for fighters, were being distributed through a new command structure, part of a plan by foreign backers to centralize control over rebel units and check Islamists linked to al-Qaeda. However, in a sign of the difficulty in uniting disparate fighting groups, some rebels said they had turned down the arms and refused to submit to the new command.
While not nearly enough to tip the military balance against Assad, who is able to deploy air power, missiles and artillery to devastating effect against rebel areas, any significant arms shipment is a boost to rebels who have long complained about the lack of international support.
The rebels refused to specify who supplied the new weapons, saying they did not want to embarrass foreign supporters, but said they had arrived openly via Turkey "from donor countries".
"We have received this shipment legally and normally. It was not delivered through smuggling routes but formally through Bab al-Hawa crossing," said a rebel commander in Homs province, referring to a rebel-held crossing with Turkey.
"But it is not enough to help us win," he told Reuters by Skype. "Another shipment has arrived in Turkey but we haven't received it yet," he added, saying he believed foreign donors were waiting for the Syrian opposition to form a transitional government to work with the rebel command.
The political opposition will meet in Istanbul on Saturday to choose a prime minister in the transitional government, which is also supposed to choose a civilian defense minister - creating the basic structure for a future state and army.
The Syrian revolt erupted nearly two years ago, starting with peaceful protests for reform but developing into an armed insurgency and then civil war as Assad responded to the uprising with ever-growing force. The United Nations estimates that 70,000 people have been killed in the relentless violence.
Although many countries backed Assad's opponents, few have actively supported arming the rebels, fearing that weapons might end up in the hands of hardline Sunni Muslim militants and lead to a repeat of Western conflicts, such as the wars against the Taliban in Afghanistan and al Qaeda-affiliated groups in Iraq.
So far rebels have relied mainly on light weapons smuggled from neighboring countries, many of them financed or sent from sympathizers in Gulf states, and from supplies seized from captured army bases inside Syria.
But video footage and pictures from across the country appear to support assertions that advanced weapons - with origins as varied as the former Yugoslavia and China - have ended up in rebel hands.
A Reuters photographer in Damascus over the last month saw several Western-built rebel firearms- including U.S. pattern M4 and Austrian Steyr assault rifles - that almost certainly came from outside the country.
STRENGTHENING REBEL COMMAND
Assad's strongest regional supporter has been Shi'ite Muslim Iran, while the leading campaigners for arming the rebels are the Sunni Muslim Gulf Arab powers Qatar and Saudi Arabia, reflecting the strong sectarian currents of the Syrian uprising.
Although Saudi Arabia and Qatar do not discuss specific weapons shipments to the rebels, both countries have been open about their support for arming them in principle.
Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal bluntly told a news conference in Riyadh on February 12: "My country believes that the brutality of the Syrian regime against its own people requires empowering the people to defend itself."
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani said last week: "As there is no clear international opinion to end the crisis in Syria...we are supporting the opposition with whatever it needs, even if it takes up arms for self-defense."
Western countries have been more cautious, and have so far committed publicly to sending only "non-lethal" aid, like radios and body armor.
International powers are alarmed by the growing influence of Islamist hardliners in a country which lies at the crossroads of the Middle East between Iraq, Israel, Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. They have made efforts to unite Syrian rebels under a clear leadership. A body was formed in December to bring the rebel units, or brigades, together under a unified command.
"One of the reasons for the change in the donors' minds is that they want to empower the new military command. They want to help it organize the weapons and the fighters," said an aide to a rebel commander in a province which has seen some of the heaviest fighting.
"If the brigades join then they get their share of these weapons and also monthly payment for the fighters."
The new military command divides Syria into five fronts - southern, western, eastern, northern and central.
"Each front has received its share. All equally distributed," the rebel said, adding that 'payment' for the weapons would come in the form of post-conflict reconstruction contracts in Syria awarded to countries that helped.
"So basically it's like we have paid in advance. It is funded by the countries that will be involved in reconstruction of Syria," he said.
But in a sign of the continued divisions among Assad's foes, some rebels complain that the "military councils" who received the weapons - and are seen by the West as more likely allies than the hardline Islamists - were the wrong groups to arm.
"There is a dispute in Damascus. The people who received these weapons are not the real fighters. They gave it to the military council which is not fighting," said a rebel commander operating around the Syrian capital. "We are the ones that are on the frontline and we are the fighters."
He said his fighters had rejected an offer of weapons in return for their allegiance to the military councils.
"There was a meeting and they asked for our brigade to join so they will give us between 10 to 20 rockets and armor-piercing ammunition and other stuff," he said. "They wanted everything to be under their supervision, but we refused."
"They are giving these weapons to people to allow them to create a (fighting) presence on the ground. Why don't they give it to people who already have a presence?"
Another commander said he would have no qualms about seizing weapons destined for rebels nominally fighting on the same side as him, if he knew they were passing through his territory.
REBELS NEED "ARMS, NOT MEN"
Several fighters from across the country who spoke to Reuters in February said they feared the ultimate plan of outside powers was to push the rebel Free Syrian Army and other "moderate" Islamist fighters into confrontation with radicals.
Fighters from hardline groups such as Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamist Ahrar al-Sham have waged some of the deadliest attacks in Syria, including car bombings in Damascus, Aleppo and elsewhere. Their ranks have been swollen by jihadi fighters from around the Muslim world.
The chief of staff of the rebel military command, Brigadier Selim Idris, said the presence of foreign fighters was hindering international support for the battle against Assad.
"We call all brothers from all the countries. Please, my brothers: we do not need men. Stay in your own countries and do something good inside your own countries," he told Reuters.
"If you want to help us just send us weapons or funding - or even pray for us. But you do not have to come to Syria. We have enough Syrian men fighting."
Idris denied receiving weapons from donors and said that weapons are still entering Syria through the black market - apparently reluctant to put foreign powers in the spotlight.
"We are not receiving weapons from the Europeans, we do not want to embarrass them, we do not want to embarrass anyone with the weapons issue," he said.
Previous attempts to unify Syria's divided rebels have foundered on local rivalries and competition for money and influence. Some have grown rich and powerful by smuggling weapons, medical supplies, food and diesel, while the lack of civil administration in rebel controlled areas has also encouraged the proliferation of autonomous rebel groups.
Seeking to address those divisions, the military councils hope to pay fighters a symbolic monthly salary of $100, funded in part by donations from the Gulf. The Homs commander said one Gulf state had recently paid $15 million towards their wages.
"They want to organize the rebels and have them all under one command - who joins will be eligible to receive the money and the weapons," he said. "This is all for organization purposes."
"If a brigade joins then it will take its share, if it doesn't, then no weapons. We want to be organized," he said.

Scandal Clouds Benedict's Last Days As Pontiff

Pope Benedict waves as he leads his last Sunday prayers at the Vatican on February 24, 2013.

VOA News

February 25, 2013

Scandal threatens to overshadow Benedict's final days as pope, as well as the preparations to choose his successor.

In one of his last acts as pontiff, Benedict Monday changed the Vatican's constitution, eliminating the 15-day waiting period before cardinals can meet to elect a new pope.

The change comes on the same day the pontiff accepted the resignation of Britain's most senior Roman Catholic cleric.

Cardinal Keith O'Brien resigned following allegations from four current and former priests that O'Brien approached them inappropriately in the 1980s.
​
Cardinal O'Brien was due to retire next month, when he turns 75. He said Monday he will contest the allegations, but won't take part in the upcoming conclave to choose a new pope.

Cardinal Keith Patrick O'Brien speaking to the media in Edinburgh, Scotland, Sept. 16, 2010.

​​
Other cardinals are also under heavy criticism. On Saturday, Catholic activists petitioned Cardinal Roger Mahony of the United States to recuse himself from the papal election so as not to insult survivors of sexual abuse committed by priests while he was archbishop of Los Angeles.

Pope biographer and Vatican analyst Marco Politi doesn't expect the furor to subside in the near future.

"Pope Ratzinger [Benedict] has began a revolution, asking [for] absolute cleanness about sex abuse," Politi says. "Although with many contradictions, this movement is going on and now it is knocking at the door of the conclave."

However, the cardinals who meet to elect Benedict's successor won't have access to the contents of a special investigation began after leaks of Vatican documents in 2012.

How the Pope is Elected

-Chosen by College of Cardinals
-Only cardinals under age 80 are allowed to vote
-They meet in Sistine Chapel for Conclave
-Voting cardinals remain in Vatican without outside contact until they select a pope
-A two-thirds-plus-one vote is required to select a pope
-Paper ballots are counted, pierced with a needle and placed on a single string
-Ballots are then burned, letting outside world know if a pope has been chosen
-Black smoke means no one has been chosen, white smoke means a pope has been selected
-Shortly after white smoke is seen, name of new pope is announced from balcony of St. Peter's Basilica

​​The report, conducted by three cardinals who are too old to participate in the conclave, is thought to have uncovered problems within the Vatican, possibly tied to the priest-child sex abuse scandal.

​​A Vatican statement said the report will only be shared with the next pope.

Benedict was elected in 2005 to replace the late John Paul II. He will become the first pontiff to step down in nearly 600 years when he leaves office February 28.

Even with the change in Vatican laws, it's not clear exactly how soon the Roman Catholic Church will begin selecting Benedict's replacement.

Many cardinals have begun informal consultations by phone.

Some church officials hope a new pope is selected by the middle of March,  in time to preside over Holy Week services leading to Easter.

South Korean President Warns North Against Nuclear Pursuits

Park Jin-Hee/Getty Images

Park Geun-Hye, South Korea's president, salutes during her inauguration ceremony in front of the National Assembly building on Monday in Seoul.

By CHOE SANG-HUN

SEOUL, South Korea — The country’s new president, Park Geun-hye, was sworn into office on Monday, facing far more complicated fissures both within South Korea and with North Korea than her father did during his Cold War dictatorship, which ended with his assassination 33 years ago.

Ms. Park, 61, is the first child of a former president to take power here, as well as the first woman, a remarkable turn for a country where Parliament, the cabinet and corporate board rooms are predominantly male and the gender income gap is the widest among member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

In her address, Ms. Park called for the revival of an economic boom her father, Park Chung-hee, had once overseen and urged North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program.

After the ceremony, in front of the National Assembly, her motorcade moved through a downtown Seoul packed with well-wishers. Her return to the presidential Blue House, her childhood home, was a triumphant moment for her and old South Koreans loyal to her father. His quashing of dissent and censorship of the press in his 18-years of iron-fisted rulewere much maligned among South Koreans during the country’s struggle for democracy.

She was elected Dec. 19, thanks largely to the support of South Koreans in their 50s and older who grew disenchanted with fractured politics and recalled how, South Korea under the dictatorship had begun its evolution from a country where per-capita income was just $100 a year into what is now a global economic powerhouse whose smartphones, cars and ships are exported around the world.

But while her father, Ms. Park begins a single, five-year term facing sharp criticism from younger and liberal South Koreans who have no fear of speaking out. When she named Queen Elizabeth I of Britain as her role model, they filled blogswith derision for her sense of entitlement. They openly called her election a return to the past, arguing that the seeds of some of the country’s biggest problems, such as the unruly influence of family controlled conglomerates, were sown under her father and accused her of glorifying his rule.

South Korea’s political rivalries are freewheeling, evidenced most recently by the arrest of a 76-year-old Christian pastor last week who claimed that Ms. Park had sex with the North Korean leader Kim Jong-il during her visit to Pyongyang in 2002. His videotaped allegations were circulated widely through the Internet.

Meanwhile, two weeks before Ms. Park’s inauguration, North Korea detonated an underground nuclear device, testing her campaign promise to reach out to the North to help end five years of diplomatic silence and high tension on the divided Korean Peninsula under her predecessor, Lee Myung-bak, a fellow conservative.

In her inaugural address, “North Korea’s recent nuclear test is a challenge to the survival and future of the Korean people, and there should be no mistake that the biggest victim will be none other than North Korea itself.”

Speaking before a large crowd that was entertained by the rapper Psy of “Gangnam Style” fame on the lawn in front of the National Assembly, she urged North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions without delay, “instead of wasting its resources on nuclear and missile development and continuing to turn its back to the world in self-imposed isolation.”

Ms. Park invoked her father’s era, calling for a “second miracle on the Han River.” The first was the transformation under him of Seoul, the capital city, which straddles the river, from the rubble of the 1950-53 Korean War into an industrialized metropolis. He nurtured a handful of family controlled companies, such as Samsung and Hyundai, as engines of an export-driven economy. These companies have grown into globally recognized conglomerates.

Now, decades later, his daughter vowed to bring South Korea’s slowing economy “rejuvenation” and “revival,” terms favored under her father. But she nodded to the biggest complaints of ordinary South Koreans — widening economic inequality and the conglomerates’ overpowering expansion at the cost of smaller businesses — grievances, saying the second Han River miracle should be based on “economic democratization.”

Ms. Park promised to end unfair practices by big businesses and strengthen small and medium-sized enterprises so that “such businesses can prosper alongside large companies.” 

  Ms. Park’s father was assassinated by his own disgruntled spy chief in October 1979 and her mother by a pro-North Korean gunman four years earlier. In this slight, unmarried woman, South Koreans found the enormously appealing image of a loyal daughter focused on rebuilding her family’s reputation. She bears a remarkable resemblance to her father and echoes his themes, including her tireless references to “national defense.”

“She was born to be a conservative and security-minded,” said Jo Dong-ho, a professor at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, who cited a well-known episode about Ms. Park. “As a young woman, when she first heard of her father’s assassination, she did not cry or ask how he died, but rather the first thing she did was to ask whether everything was all right along the border with North Korea.”

Her presidency adds a family rivalry into relations between the two Koreas. Under her father, a staunchly anti-Communist conservative mainstream took root in South Korea. The current North Korean leader is Kim Jong-un, the grandson of Kim Il-sung, the North Korean founder, who sent 31 commandos in 1968 in a failed attempt to attack the Blue House and kill Ms. Park’s father.

The young North Korean leader’s quest is to recover some of the leverage North Korea had lost to the economically prosperous South by arming itself with nuclear weapons.

A week before Ms. Park’s December election, North Korea launched a satellite into orbit. The launching and its Feb. 12 nuclear test heightened fears in the region that years of efforts by Washington and its allies to rein in the North’s nuclear ambitions have failed, and that it was getting closer to mastering the technology for building nuclear-tipped long-range missiles.

“By timing his nuclear test before her inauguration, Kim Jong-un consolidated his bargaining position and is challenging Park Geun-hye to deal with it,” said Bong Young-shik, a senior research fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul. “What first move she makes on North Korea is important because it could help set the pace and tone of the policies of other regional powers who have all gone leadership changes recently. Everyone is watching her, including North Korea.”

During her campaign, Ms. Park positioned herself halfway between the two extreme views in South Korea, promising a strong defense posture and retaliation against North Korean provocations but also calling for dialogue and easing animosity built up under Mr. Lee.

Wider World by CS: เรื่องการชี้ตำหนิเหรียญว่าแท้/เก๊

Wider World by CS: เรื่องการชี้ตำหนิเหรียญว่าแท้/เก๊

Crowds expected for pope as Vatican battles intrigue

• View PhotoPope Benedict XVI addresses cardinals and prelates at the Vatican, on February 23, …
• View PhotoTourists look at the Colonnato from the center of St Peter's Square in the Vatican, …
• View PhotoPortraits of the Pope outside a souvenir shop near the Vatican in Rome this week. …
• View PhotoVatican spokesman Federico Lombardi speaks during a press briefing at the Vatican …
• View PhotoPope Benedict XVI waves as he leaves after Ash Wednesday mass at St Peter's basilica …

Crowds were expected for Pope Benedict XVI's last Sunday prayers, as cardinals from around the world began arriving in Rome to elect his successor and the Vatican battled reports of high intrigue.

The 85-year-old pope will read out his traditional Angelus prayer and messages to Catholic faithful in different languages from the window of his apartment high above the crowd in St Peter's Square.
The prayer begins at 1100 GMT and usually lasts only a few minutes.
City authorities have announced tight security in and around the Vatican, with more than 100 police officers and snipers on surrounding buildings, as well as two field hospitals and hundreds of volunteers to help pilgrims.
The security is being seen as preparation for the pope's final general audience in St Peter's on Wednesday, when bigger crowds are expected.
City officials are expecting more than 100,00 people on Sunday and around 200,000 people on Wednesday.
The leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics has said he will step down on Thursday because he no longer has the strength of mind and body to carry on.
The announcement last week shocked the world and brings Benedict's pontificate to an abrupt end after eight years dominated by the scandal of abuses by priests and his efforts to counter rising secularism in the West.
Benedict will be only the second pope to resign of his own free will in the Church's 2,000-year history and the first to do so since the Middle Ages.
The momentous decision has also set off a rumour mill, with some Italian media saying his health may be far worse than the Vatican ever revealed and others saying an explosive report into the "Vatileaks" scandal may be to blame.
The Vatican's Secretariat of State -- effectively the government of the Catholic Church -- took the unusual step on Saturday of issuing a formal statement condemning "completely false news stories" doing the rounds.
The Panorama news weekly and the Repubblica daily said that a report by a committee of cardinals into the leaks of confidential papal papers last year had uncovered allegations of intrigue, corruption and blackmail in the Vatican.
Following Benedict's resignation, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone who occupies a post known as the "Camerlengo Cardinal" (Chamberlain Cardinal) will take over interim powers of managing the Church before a new pontiff is elected.
Catholics around the world have been divided over the resignation, with some criticising it as a break with tradition that sounds like an admission of defeat and others welcoming it as a way of breathing new life into the Church.
No clear favourites have emerged to succeed Joseph Ratzinger but many observers say the cardinals who make the choice may plump for a much younger candidate who is a more pastoral figure than the academic Benedict.
A series of meetings of cardinals starting Friday will determine the date of the start of the conclave to elect a new pope, with the Vatican hinting that it could be brought forward to early March since there is no papal funeral.
Conclaves can last for days before a candidate wins a two-thirds majority.
The Vatican has said Benedict will retire initially to the papal summer residence of Castel Gandolfo near Rome for the next two or three months while renovations are being carried out in a former monastery inside the Vatican.
Once he moves to the monastery on a hilltop over St Peter's, the Catholic Church will be in an unprecedented and delicate situation of having a pope and his predecessor living virtually side by side within the Vatican walls.
Benedict has said he will live "hidden from the world" but Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi has said he could provide "spiritual guidance" to his successor and will likely continue to publish his theological research.

Special Report: The loneliness of the short distance pope

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY | Fri Feb 22, 2013 2:07am EST

(Reuters) - In Havana last March, when Pope Benedict sat down with Fidel Castro, the revolutionary leader jocularly asked his fellow octogenarian: "What does a pope do?"
Benedict proceeded to tell Castro, who had stepped down as president in 2008 for health reasons and had to be helped to walk into the room, about his duties as leader of the 1.2 billion-member Roman Catholic Church.
Little did Castro know that Benedict was himself contemplating retirement.
A pope has not abdicated in some six centuries, and the Catholic faithful have come to expect the man whose titles include successor of St. Peter and "servant of the servants of God," to stay in office until his dying breath. His decision to take that step, just under a year later, would shake the foundations of a Church already reeling from a series of scandals - from problems at the Vatican Bank to allegations of sexual abuse - and facing challenges to its authority around the world.
Back home in the Vatican in the weeks after his Cuba visit, Benedict spent time in the prayerful silence of his small private chapel in the Vatican's Apostolic Palace where a large bronze Christ on a crucifix looks down from a wall. At some point last spring he decided he should go.
"The pope's decision was made many months ago, after the trip to Mexico and Cuba, and kept in an inviolable privacy that nobody could penetrate," wrote Gian Maria Vian, editor of the Vatican newspaper l'Osservatore Romano.
The current pope has never been as well-loved as his charismatic predecessor John Paul, who died in pain because he felt he should "not come down from the cross". Benedict's decision has some faithful asking if Benedict was the right person for the job in the first place.
It was at least partly borne of his own physical shortcomings. While he was in Mexico on the first leg of his March trip, he lost his balance in his residence, hitting his head on a bathroom sink. The accident was kept secret until the Vatican confirmed it last week, but insiders say it reminded Benedict of his encroaching age and physical frailty. The pope was fitted with a pacemaker years ago, the Vatican also disclosed.
Reuters has spoken to cardinals and other Vatican insiders and Church experts to delve into Benedict's thinking and get an idea of how he made his decision to step down. Most sources spoke on condition of anonymity. The picture they paint is of a serious intellectual who let himself become isolated in the Vatican, ill at ease with the day-to-day running of the Church.
Pope John Paul wore his accidents, his hospitalizations and his diseases like badges, believing they could inspire others who were suffering. But Benedict is a different type of man.
"This is a man of incredible privacy," said a Vatican official who has known him for many years. "He had very few friends."
"He certainly did not consult widely," said another Vatican official. "You cannot consult widely in the Vatican without it leaking. It might have been to a very restricted group, perhaps posing the question hypothetically."
A BETRAYAL
On May 23, 2012, less than two months after his meeting with Castro, Benedict faced an event that would shake his confidence and reinforce his still-secret decision.
The Pope's personal butler, Paolo Gabriele, was arrested and charged with leaking sensitive documents from the pontiff's desk to the media. The documents alleged corruption in the Vatican and sparked a scandal that cast a rare and unwelcome public light on the inner workings of the Holy See.
Gabriele, one of fewer than 10 people who had a key to an elevator that led to the pope's private apartments, was convicted last October and released from jail after Benedict pardoned him three days before Christmas.
The betrayal had a devastating effect on Benedict, according to an official who knows him well. The Vatican tried to put a good face on the affair, stressing the pope's benevolence towards his betrayer. But the mood in the Apostolic Palace was different.
"He was never the same after that," one official source said of the treachery by someone Benedict considered a son. "It was like shooting Achilles in the heel."
There were other worries on Benedict's mind last year, insiders said.
The Vatican Bank, for decades tainted by scandals, found itself mired in fresh controversy, this time over an Italian investigation into alleged money-laundering.
A group of American nuns, disciplined by the Vatican for being too liberal on issues such as homosexuality, was enjoying a groundswell of popular support, their backers accusing the Vatican of excessive rigidity.
Fresh allegations of sexual abuse committed by priests continued to emerge, in Philadelphia and elsewhere in the United States. In the once staunchly Catholic country of Ireland, the deputy prime minister demanded the resignation of the head of the Church, Cardinal Sean Brady, over his handling of abuse cases.
And despite the pope's strong condemnation of it, gay marriage was making advances in the United States and some Catholic European countries.
At the same time Benedict's health was deteriorating.
Peter Seewald, a German journalist who wrote a book with the pope in 2010 in which Benedict first publicly floated the possibility of resigning, visited him at the end of 2012 while working on a new biography.
"His hearing had worsened. He couldn't see with his left eye. His body had become so thin that the tailors had difficulty keeping up with newly fitted clothes ... I'd never seen him so exhausted-looking, so worn down," Seewald wrote in the German magazine Focus after Benedict announced his abdication.
"I think he simply decided that the forces that were mounting against him were too great and the forces on which he could rely were too meager to counter this," said the Vatican official who knows him well.
PRIVATE AND ISOLATED
Towards the end of last year came a hint that 2013 would be different. The Vatican usually gives journalists an unofficial indication of how many international trips the pope plans in the following year.
Last year the only trip confirmed was to Brazil in July, for the Roman Catholic Church's World Day of Youth, a kind of "Catholic Woodstock" that can take place with or without the pope.
Benedict had already decided that he would not be there. The only thing left to do was announce his momentous news to his aides and to the world.
In September the pope travelled to Lebanon and in November, with much fanfare, Benedict joined Twitter, attracting more than 1.5 million followers in just a few days. Christmas, New Year and Epiphany came and went with all the pomp and pageantry that only an institution like the Vatican can offer.
Benedict, a stickler for liturgical precision, did not want the Church to be devoid of a visible leader for any of its most important feasts, insiders say. He timed his announcement for a liturgical lull, so a new man could be in place before the start of Holy Week on Palm Sunday, which falls on March 24 this year.
He broke the news to cardinals just after 11:30 a.m. on February 11. It was a regularly scheduled meeting to announce new saints, and most cardinals' minds were probably wandering, according to several who were there.
"People were thinking of their next appointments, at least I was," said one participant.
Then Benedict dropped the bombshell.
"Both strength of mind and body are necessary (to run the Church), strength 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," he told them in Latin.
Benedict had written the 350-word statement himself and before reading it sent it to a Latin expert in the Secretariat of State to make sure the grammar was correct, according to a source familiar with the event.
He read his note in a steady voice with no outward sign of emotion.
"For a few minutes after we understood what had happened, no one moved," said one cardinal. Another said: "I just left in a daze without uttering a word to anyone."
Although the official line is that the pope was "courageous" in making his decision, in private conversations officials repeat two words more than any others to describe Benedict, and how he came to the decision: private, and isolated.
One Vatican official who "respects but disagrees with" Benedict's decision said the pope had become isolated but had also isolated himself.
"Because of his privacy, he was not an easy person to help," the official said. "This was his decision."
Several insiders said they believed part of the decision lay in the fact that the pope never made the full transfiguration from Joseph Ratzinger to Benedict XVI.
"I don't think that he ever really internalized being the pope. He never made that transition where the previous person, that individual, is gone and now you are the pope, that's all you are," one official said.
One sign of this, two Vatican sources noted, was that Benedict continued writing his books using two names: first, Joseph Ratzinger and beneath, Pope Benedict XVI.
"The pope cannot publish private books ... the pope does not have a private person," one official said. "Maybe because he was already too advanced in age, maybe because Joseph Ratzinger was already too substantial a person."
DISAPPOINTMENT
Long before he became a bishop, Joseph Ratzinger was a towering theologian, a university professor known around the Catholic world for his dozens of books and ground-breaking, thought-provoking lectures.
As a young priest he was an "expert" called to assist cardinals at the 1962-65 Second Vatican Council, which attempted to bring the Church into the modern world with liturgical changes and outreach to other religions.
"For experts, Ratzinger was a pioneer in a movement known as ‘ressourcement', trying to return Catholicism to its original sources such as the Bible, the Fathers of the Church, and its liturgy," said John Allen, author of several books on Benedict.
Benedict continued in the professor mould as bishop, cardinal and even when he became pope. This was painfully clear in 2006 when he delivered a weighty lecture on "faith and reason" at the University of Regensburg in Germany, where he once taught theology.
Benedict quoted a remark by a Byzantine emperor who linked Islam and violence, offending Muslims around the world. He apologized but still seemed surprised at the power his words carried.
One Vatican official, speaking privately, speculated that the conclave to elect Benedict's successor may discuss whether the new pope should promise not to write "private books" but only papal documents.
In his abdication statement, Benedict concluded that it had become impossible for him to continue being pope "in today's world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith".
Many inside and outside the Vatican wonder why he did not put better governance in place in the Curia, the Vatican's central administration, to help ease the load on his mind and body.
Critics, such as leading Italian Vatican expert and author Sandro Magister, say the pope put people in positions of administrative power because he knew them and felt comfortable with them rather than for their abilities.
One Vatican official said he believed the Curia "let the pope down" by not preventing problems. In particular, some Vatican insiders criticize Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Benedict's number two.
"Bertone will probably be remembered as one of the worst secretaries of state in history," said another official.
In confidential cables from the U.S. embassy to the Vatican published by WikiLeaks in 2010, diplomats depicted Bertone as a divisive "yes man" with no diplomatic experience or linguistic skills, who protected the pope from bad news.
At the time, Bertone replied: "I am happy to be a 'yes man' if it serves the Holy Father."
A number of Vatican officials privately say that instead of abdicating and throwing the Church into the unknown, the pope could have cut back on travel and other activities to conserve his strength, limiting himself to major decisions and pronouncements, and delegating more.
"It is easy to understand why an 85-year-old man in difficult conditions may feel terribly tired. But the pope does not need to be a hands-on chief executive if he puts in place a good team, which he could have done at any moment because he is a sovereign," a Vatican source said.
"He could content himself with doing very little except praying ... but because the people he had in place were not adequate, instead of removing them, he removed himself," the source said, adding that he would have tried to talk him out of it.
Many Catholic faithful, from elderly women praying in the pews in New York, to monsignors who work in the frescoed offices on the floor below the papal apartments, share that sense of disquiet and loss.
"The fundamental idea that the papacy does not end until the death of a pope has been eroded. It will take 100 years of popes never retiring for this to become a blip," one Vatican source said.
(Edited by Simon Robinson and Sara Ledwith)