Pope Benedict XVI, leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics, announced Monday he will resign on February 28. because he no longer has the strength to fulfil the duties of his office.
He is the first pontiff since the Middle Ages to take such a step.
The 85-year-old German-born Pope said he had noticed that his strength had deteriorated over recent months.
In a statement, the pope said in order to govern "both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognise my incapacity to adequately fulfil the ministry entrusted to me. »
"For this reason, and well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter," he said according to a statement from the Vatican.
A Vatican spokesman said the pontiff would step down from 1900 GMT on February 28, leaving the office vacant until a successor will be chosen to Benedict who succeeded John Paul, one of history's most popular pontiffs.
Benedict was elected to the papacy on April 19, 2005 when he was 78.
Israeli Chief Rrabbi Yona Metzger on Monday praised Pope Benedict's inter-religious outreach and said relations between Israel and the Vatican had never been better.
"During his period (as pope) there were the best relations ever between the church and the chief rabbinate and we hope that this trend will continue," a spokesman quoted Metzger as saying after the pope announced he would resign.
"I think he deserves a lot of credit for advancing inter-religious links the world over between Judaism, Christianity and Islam."
In May 2009, Benedict XVI visited Israel where he stressed the shared roots of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.He said that his pilgrimage to the Middle East was a reminder of the "inseparable bond" between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people.
He spoke at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, to express "deep compassion" for the "millions of Jews killed," but did not implicate any Catholic guilt for the Holocaust, nor use the words "German," "Nazi," or "murder," nor did he discuss his own personal wartime experience in which he was "registered in the Hitler Youth."
He refused to go inside the Yad Vashem museum because the museum paints an unflattering picture of Pius XII, the pope during the Holocaust, "for not doing enough to help save Jews."
Shortly after his election, his first trip abroad was to his native Germany where he visited the Cologne synagogue.