Pope Benedict XVI
VATICAN CITY—A plume of white smoke from the Sistine Chapel's chimney and the tolling of bells in St. Peter's square just before 6:00 p.m. Rome time (noon EDT) signaled that the conclave of Catholic Bishops had elected a new pope: Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, 78, the church's leading hard-liner and the first German pontiff since the 11th century. Choosing the name Pope Benedict XVI, the 265th pope appeared before a scarlet velvet curtain on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica to address a cheering crowd of thousands.
"Dear brothers and sisters, after the great Pope John Paul II, the cardinals have elected me—a simple, humble worker in the vineyard of the Lord," he said. "The fact that the Lord can work and act even with insufficient means consoles me, and above all I entrust myself to your prayers."
Seventeen days after the death of John Paul, the crowd in St. Peter's Square responded with chants of "Benedict! Benedict!"
Catholics in the square praised Ratzinger for his moral clarity and unwavering orthodoxy. "I think the church needs Benedict," said John Burger, a junior from Christendom College in Virginia who is studying in Italy." He will be more clear and forceful and he will bring an internal integrity to the church. There is nothing more attractive than a faith that is strong."
"He will do a lot to deal with interreligious dialogue between Christian and Islam in Africa," said Pierre Romain, 31, of Cameroon, also in St. Peter's Square for the announcement." But he will not compromise on the Christian Gospel and what it stands for."
While Ratzinger was seen as the leading contender to fill the papal vacancy, some Vatican experts expressed surprise that the selection took place on what was only the second day of voting. Just two of the eight conclaves in the past 100 years ended after two days. Vatican watchers had predicted that Ratzinger's ultraconservative track record would generate resistance to his election, but he managed to get the two-thirds, or 77 votes, necessary in the early stage of voting.
Ratzinger had served John Paul II since 1981 as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which made him a doctrinal watchdog charged with enforcing Catholic orthodoxy. He has been at the forefront of promoting the church's stances against birth control and abortion, for upholding the barring of female priests, and for centralizing church power at the Vatican. "Ratzinger has been the architect of many of the most controversial aspects of Pope John Paul's pontificate, from the crackdown on liberation theology in the 1980s. . . ," said National Catholic Reporter Vatican correspondent John Allen in a radio interview Monday. "He was responsible for the battle in the 1990s against what's known as the theology of religious pluralism, this idea of trying to see other religions as vehicles of revelation and ultimately of salvation." Ratzinger has disciplined church dissidents and upheld church policy against attempts by liberals for reforms. In contrast to John Paul, who was revered in his native Poland, a recent poll in Germany showed that opponents of Ratziner becoming pope outnumbered supporters. "I would have liked a more reform-oriented leader," said Gabrielle Schuh, 76, of Hagen, Germany, in St. Peter's square. "Of course, there will be some national pride, but for most German Catholics, he will be a problem."
On Monday, Ratzinger, who was the powerful dean of the College of Cardinals, used his homily at the Mass dedicated to electing the new pope to warn the faithful about tendencies that he considers danger to the faith: sects, ideologies like Marxisim, liberalism, atheism, agnosticism and relativism: the ideology that there are no absolute truths. "Having a clear faith, based on the creed of the church, is often labeled today as a fundamentalism," he said. "Whereas relativism, which is letting oneself be tossed and swept along by every wind of teaching, looks like the only attitude acceptable to today's standards. A dictatorship of relativism is established that recognizes nothing definite and leaves only one's own ego and one's own desires as the final measure."
"[M]any cardinals, having heard that, their reaction would be . . . they would agree with him on content," said Allen. "The question would be: Is that the right way to present the Christian message to the broader world, or should the first note at least be one of optimism, hope, and energy?"
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