Name: Joseph Ratzinger Age: 78 Nationality: German Claim to fame: Benedict XVI, the 256th pope
Bells ran in St. Peter’s square and white smoke rose from the Sistine Chapel’s chimney to signal to the world that a new pope has been elected. After just a two-day conclave, an unusually short period for such an important deliberation, German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who was dean of the college of cardinals, was chosen as the new spiritual leader of the world’s 1.1 billion Catholics. The oldest pontiff in 275 years and the first German in 1,000, Ratzinger had received at least 77 votes in the 115-member cardinal collage.
He chose the name Benedict XVI for himself, paying homage to Pope Benedict XV who is best remembered as a man of peace who tried to prevent World War I during his short pontificate. Because of his age — he turned 78 on Saturday last — there are concerns too about how long the new pope’s reign will last. In 1991 he suffered from haemorrhage stroke, but there are no apparent lingering effect of that and the Vatican has been mum about his physical condition. What is, however, clear is that he will not be the globetrotting pope that John Paul II was. His age clearly was a factor among cardinals who favoured a “transitional” pope who could skilfully carry forward John Paul II’s legacy, rather than a younger cardinal who could serve another long pontificate.
Described as intellectual, cultured and rather reserved, the new pope is a hard-liner like his predecessor. A conservative on issues such as homosexuality and the ordination of women, Pope Benedict XVI has led the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith — a position he used to discipline church dissidents and uphold church policy against attempts at reform by liberals and activist priests. He has denounced rock music, dismissed anyone who tries to find “feminist” meanings in the Bible, and last year told American bishops it was appropriate to deny Communion to those who support abortion and euthanasia.
Pope Benedict XVI inherits a range of burning issues such as priest sex-abuse scandals that have cost the church millions of dollars in settlements in the United States and elsewhere; chronic shortages of priests and nuns in the West; and calls for easing the ban on condoms to help fight the spread of Aids.
Just before the cardinals entered the conclave on Monday evening, while addressing them he insisted that the church must defend itself against threats such as ‘radical individualism’ and ‘vague religious mysticism’. His faith is rooted in Bavaria, the Alpine region with Germany’s strongest Catholic identity. In 1951 Ratzinger was ordained a priest along with his brother Georg and in 1953 he obtained a doctorate in theology and began teaching theology in Bonn, first of several appointments in German universities. By 1977, Ratzinger was appointed bishop of Munich and elevated to cardinal three months later by Pope Paul VI. He was one of only two cardinals in the latest conclave that were not chosen by John Paul II.
It is not difficult to see that by electing Ratzinger as its new pope, the leaders of the Catholic church want to stick to the orthodox policies and principals that the late John Paul II maintained.
Bells ran in St. Peter’s square and white smoke rose from the Sistine Chapel’s chimney to signal to the world that a new pope has been elected. After just a two-day conclave, an unusually short period for such an important deliberation, German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who was dean of the college of cardinals, was chosen as the new spiritual leader of the world’s 1.1 billion Catholics. The oldest pontiff in 275 years and the first German in 1,000, Ratzinger had received at least 77 votes in the 115-member cardinal collage.
