Crowds cheer Pope Benedict's final audience at Vatican

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  LIVE VIDEO; Pope Benedict XVI gives his final public address in St. Peter's Square.By Alastair Jamieson, Staff writer, NBC NewsTens of thousands gathered in St. Peter's Square in Vatican City Wednesday to witness Pope Benedict XVI’s final general audience before his historic abdication.

Blue skies welcomed Catholic pilgrims and onlookers from around the world who cheered as Benedict arrived and made a circuit of the square on his "popemobile."

Benedict waved as he swept through the crowd, pausing briefly several times to bless babies, before heading to a platform in front of St. Peter’s Basilica to make his address.

There was huge applause as he began his address by thanking the crowd “from the bottom of my heart,” adding that he had “great trust” in the future of the church.

Referring to the many turbulent moments of his papacy, he said he had faced "choppy seas" and "headwinds."

Pope Benedict will formally abdicate Thursday, becoming the first pontiff to leave office in this way since the Middle Ages.

The Vatican said more than 50,000 had applied for official tickets for Wednesday’s event – eight times the usual number of applications - and that a total of 200,000 were expected to pack the square and surrounding streets.

The size of the event means there was not expected to be any kissing of the pontiff’s hand as is traditional after papal audiences.

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Papal audiences are normally held inside a Vatican hall in the winter.

Young members of the Catholic group Opus Dei served as stewards at the entrance to the square, managing the queues of people filing in past metal detectors, AFP correspondent Gildas Le Roux reported.

Not all of them supported Benedict's resignation, Le Roux said, quoting one of the stewards, Leonardo Rossi, as saying: "I do not share the pope's decision to step down. It is not a fitting time, with all the problems the church is going through."

Many in the crowd waved flags and banners wishing the pope well.

Sister Carmela, who lives north of Rome, traveled to the square with her fellow nuns and members of her parish, Reuters said.

"He did what he had to do in his conscience before God," she told Reuters. "This is a day in which we are called to trust in the Lord, a day of hope. There is no room for sadness here today. We have to pray, there are many problems in the Church but we have to trust in the Lord."

Tens of thousands had been in the square since the early hours in the hope of securing a good place from which to see the audience.

Among them was a marching band from Pope Benedict’s native Germany. Balthasar Bauer, 23, from Bavaria, who was in traditional dress, lederhosen, said: "You can't change it - this will likely be the last Bavarian pope, so I had to come here to see him for one last time."

Pope Benedict will leave his residence inside the Vatican and travel by helicopter to his summer residence at Castel Gandolfo, about 15 miles south-east of Rome at about 4.55 p.m. local time (10:55 a.m. ET) Thursday. His papacy will officially end at 8 p.m. local time (2 p.m. ET).Leading historian Michael Walsh discusses the impact of Pope Benedict XVI's resignation, his legacy and whether there's a chance that the next pontiff will be a non-European.After stepping down, the pope will keep his name, His Holiness Benedict XVI, but get a new official title, "Emeritus Pope." The Vatican on Tuesday said he would wear a simple white cassock and swap his traditional red shoes for a pair of brown leather loafers he was given on his trip to Leon in Mexico last year.

Carlo Angerer and Andy Eckardt, NBC News, contributed to this report.

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