If ever there was a moment that embodied the surreal novelty created by the first papal resignation in 600 years, it came on the morning of March 23, 2013: Newly elected Pope Francis had traveled to the papal summer retreat south of Rome and was greeted on the helipad by the previous pope, Benedict XVI, who had moved there three weeks earlier.
Two men in white -- a reigning pope and a retired one -- each showing the other the deference owed to a pontiff and discussing the future of the Catholic Church as it passed from one papacy to the next.
