"I believe that a pope should have a term limit or be given the privilege to resign from office, if he can't do his various duties effectively anymore due to health reasons or old age," he said.

Meanwhile, Italian iReporter Martina Lunardelli says she was shocked by the pope's decision to resign but feels it was the right one to make.

She warns against judging the pontiff for what she says was obviously a difficult choice, and urges those who are speculating about his resignation to respect matters which are "above" them in knowledge and understanding.

While not quite unprecedented, Benedict's resignation is certainly historic. The last pope to step down before his death was Gregory XII, who in 1415 quit to end a civil war within the church in which more than one man claimed to be pope.