Pope Benedict XVI, a man of the cloth who will be best remembered for his homophobic decrees and an anti-Islamic snafu, is the first pope to resign in over 600 years. Peace out. Although his tenure and terror will soon come to an end, his majesty's likeness can still be found at the San Francisco Wax Museum at Fisherman's Wharf.

"We thought His Holiness might be getting some requests for TV coverage today," said Rodney Fong, owner / president of the Wax Museum at Fisherman’s Wharf, via press release, "So we've made it easy for everyone to come down for a Papal audience: no ticket to Rome required."

Pope Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger) announced that he would leave office on February 28th. In a statement, he cited "both strength of mind and body are necessary [to lead], 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. 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, entrusted to me by the Cardinals on 19 April 2005, in such a way, that as from 28 February 2013, at 20:00 hours, the See of Rome, the See of Saint Peter, will be vacant and a Conclave to elect the new Supreme Pontiff will have to be convoked by those whose competence it is."

His departure will, hopefully, make room for more moderate voices within the church. (No, not you, Tipsy.)

The the wax figure of Pope XVI can be found in the window outside thew S.F. Wax Museum at 145 Jefferson. Check it out if the mood should strike. (Nixon will be there too!)

With tears in her eyes and a warble in her throat, UC Chancellor Linda Katehi apologized to more than 1,000 students and protesters on Monday over the use of pepper spray against peaceful Occupy student protesters. "I really feel horrible for what happened on Friday... I don't want to be the chancellor of the university we had on Friday," an Arianna Huffington-sounding Katehi said amid a chorus of students shouting for her resignation, adding, "I know you may not believe anything i am telling you today. You don't have to. It is my responsibility to earn your trust."

She went on to say that she ordered protesters' tents removed but did not authorize police to use chemical agents against the students.

LA Times reports: "Katehi announced Monday that she had put campus Police Chief Annette Spicuzza on administrative leave, an effort to restore peace to the 32,000-student public university. Two officers involved in the spraying, in which students were hit in the face as they sat quietly with arms linked, were put on paid leave over the weekend."

Watch the entire thing below:

Both the Board of the UC Davis Faculty Association and the university's English Department have publicly asked for Katehi to resign.

SFAppeal breaks today's biggest (local) story: Chief Operating Officer for the SFMTA, Ken McDonald, resigned today. McDonald, who is in charge of Muni operations, gave no specific explanation for the sudden departure. But before you get all hot and bothered over last night's F-Market f-up, Appeal goes on to report that a "Muni insider we spoke to said that he believes that last night's accident was not related to McDonald's departure, but was 'just bad timing.'" McDonald will go into more detail later at today's 2 p.m. SFMTA board meeting. Until then, check out his resignation letter here.

After dutifully soaking-in the coverage of Samurai Mike Singletary's promotion to head coach, the unfortunate conclusion becomes: it doesn't matter who San Francisco's head coach is.

The single biggest problem hobbling the 49er brand is that the current DeBartolo-York ownership is inept in overseeing the processes of running a football franchise.

Will Singletary do well? That'd be great. In fact, we him to give the team a bounce. By all accounts he is a man of integrity who connects with his players on a personal level.

And how does the town in which he became a Hall Of Fame MLB think Samurai Mike will do as head coach? "Probably pretty good," said AFS Chicago correspondent Lauren, "I mean, he has to be better than what you had."

Yuh-huh. But how much of the blame was truly Mike Nolan's to absorb? The observation remains: it won't matter how well Singletary does when all the pieces around him are coming apart.

The list of York-era failings gets trotted out time-and-again: the needless firing of Mooch; the politically-motivated isolation and alienation of Bill Walsh; GM Terry Donahue's reign of terror; the lowest bid-price hiring of Dennis Erickson as head coach; snapping off San Francisco stadium negotiations with Gavin; and alas, poor QB Alex Smith.

How will the future be hewn? How can fans trust the owners to make positive decisions? Will OC Mad Mike Martz be kept? Is Scot McCloughan the answer at general manager? What the hell is going on with getting a new stadium built in San Francisco? Or anywhere? And can you believe that they haven't managed to retire Jerry Rice's number yet?!

Photo via AP.