Benedict XVI: German cardinal elected pope

Confusing signals, quick election
White smoke poured from the chimney atop the Sistine Chapel and the bells of St. Peter’s pealed at 6:04 p.m. (12:04 p.m. ET) to announce the conclave had produced a pope. Flag-waving pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square chanted: “Viva il Papa!” or “Long live the pope!”

The bells rang after a confusing smoke signal that Vatican Radio initially suggested was black but then declared was too difficult to call. White smoke is used to announce a pope’s election to the world.

It 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.

“It’s only been 24 hours, surprising how fast he was elected,” Vatican Radio said.

The timing, more than an hour before the end of the afternoon session, indicated that the pontiff may have been chosen on the fourth ballot, although it was not immediately known. Voting began Monday night with a single ballot, and there were two ballots to be held Tuesday morning and afternoon.

The cardinals took an oath of secrecy, forbidding them to divulge how they voted. Under conclave rules, a winner needed two-thirds support, or 77 votes from the 115 cardinal electors.

Challenges ahead
Ratzinger succeeds a pope who gained extraordinary popularity over a 26-year pontificate, history’s third-longest papacy. Millions mourned him around the world in a tribute to his charisma.

While John Paul, a Pole, was elected to challenge the communist system in place in eastern Europe in 1978, Benedict faces new issues: the need for dialogue with Islam, the divisions between the wealthy north and the poor south as well as problems within his own church.

These include the priest sex-abuse scandals that have cost the church millions in settlements in the United States and elsewhere; coping with a chronic shortage of priests and nuns in the West; and halting the stream of people leaving a church indifferent to teachings they no longer find relevant.

Under John Paul, the church’s central authority grew, often to dismay of bishops and rank-and-file Catholics around the world.

Pope John XXIII was 77 when he was elected pope in 1958 and viewed as a transitional figure, but he called the Second Vatican Council that revolutionized the church from within and opened up its dialogue with non-Catholics.

Benedict will have to decide whether to keep up the kind of foreign travel that was a hallmark of John Paul’s papacy, with his 104 pilgrimages abroad.

Germany trip likely
He may already be locked into one — to his home country: the mid-August Catholic youth day gathering in Cologne, Germany. John Paul had agreed to visit and organizers have already spent millions of dollars in preparations.

Navarro-Valls said he expected Benedict XVI would attend.

“It seems obvious,” Navarro-Valls told RAI television, noting that young people in the crowd had already started chanting “Benedict XVI” the way they chanted “Giovanni Paolo,” John Paul’s name in Italian. He added that he hadn’t discussed it with the new pope but that it seemed likely, since the event was in the pope’s homeland.

“With the new Holy Father, we can be assured of continuity with his predecessor and of a personality who will lead the church with great responsibility before God,” said Heiner Koch, the prelate in charge of the event.

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