Latest from Rome and beyond

• NO CONCERNS FROM GERMAN JEW | 1:55 p.m. ET

While some have questioned whether the new pope betrayed any pro-Nazi sentiment during his teenage years in Germany during World War II, the leader of Germany’s main Jewish organization tells the Associated Press that he has no reservations about his past.

"We are certain that he will continue on the path of reconciliation between Christians and Jews that John Paul II began," Paul Spiegel, says in a telephone interview.

In his memoirs, former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, wrote of being enrolled in Hitler's Nazi youth movement against his will when he was 14 in 1941, when membership was compulsory. He says he was soon let out because of his studies for the priesthood.

Two years later he was drafted into a Nazi anti-aircraft unit as a helper, a common fate for teenage boys too young to be soldiers. Enrolled as a soldier at 18, in the last months of the war, he barely finished basic training.

• A FAST ELECTION | 1:43 p.m. ET

The Associated Press reports that the election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was one of the fastest elections in the past century: Pope Pius XII was elected in 1939 in three ballots on one day, while Pope John Paul I was elected in 1978 in four ballots in one day. The new pope was elected after either four or five ballots over two days.

• SURPRISE AT UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME | 1:35 p.m. ET

In comments gathered by Reuters news agency shortly after Ratzinger’s elevation to pope was announced, Lawrence Cunningham, professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame, says he considers the selection a surprise:

"I was surprised for a couple of reasons. One is his age (78). … The second is that I thought he might have been too much of a polarizing person. But that may not be the perception that was shared by the cardinals.     It is very clear that he is going to be a pope that is going to take very seriously the problems of the Catholic Church in Europe."

• WEB SITE ‘TRADERS’ PICK RATZINGER | 1:26 p.m. ET

Intrade.com, an Internet site that allows gamblers to wager on real-world outcomes in much the same way that stock traders bet that certain stocks will appreciate in value, issues a press release stating that its customers correctly tabbed Ratzinger as the next pontiff.

• FIRST GERMAN POPE SINCE 1523 | 1:20 p.m. ET

NBC News reports that Benedict XVI is one of just a handful of popes of German ancestry. The last non-Italian Pope before John Paul II — Adrian VI (1522-23 A.D.) — was born in Utrecht, now in the Netherlands, of German ancestry. He is sometimes referred to as the last German pope as Utrecht was considered German at the time. There were also a series of popes from places where modern Germany is located in the 11th century, the most recent being Stephen X (1057-58 A.D.); they were nominated by Holy Roman Emperor Henry III.

• BID TO SOFTEN IMAGE? | 1:08 p.m. ET

The Associated Press reports that the pope's selection of Benedict XVI could be interpreted as a bid to soften his image as the Vatican's doctrinal hard-liner. Benedict XV, who reigned from 1914 to 1922, was a moderate following Pius X, who had implemented a sharp crackdown against doctrinal "modernism."

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