Papacy

Election to the Papacy
Prediction

Benedict XVI appeared on the balcony shortly after his election.
© ReutersOn January 2, 2005, Time magazine quoted unnamed Vatican sources as saying that Ratzinger was a frontrunner to succeed John Paul II should the pope die or become too ill to continue as pope. On the death of John Paul II, the Financial Times gave the odds of Ratzinger becoming pope as 7–1, the lead position, but close to his rivals on the liberal wing of the church.

Piers Paul Read wrote in The Spectator on March 5, 2005:

There can be little doubt that his courageous promotion of orthodox Catholic teaching has earned him the respect of his fellow cardinals throughout the world. He is patently holy, highly intelligent and sees clearly what is at stake. Indeed, for those who blame the decline of Catholic practice in the developed world precisely on the propensity of many European bishops to hide their heads in the sand, a pope who confronts it may be just what is required. Ratzinger is no longer young — he is 78 years old: but Angelo Roncalli, who revolutionized Catholicism by calling the Second Vatican Council was the same age when he became pope as John XXIII. As Jeff Israely, the correspondent of Time, was told by a Vatican insider last month, "The Ratzinger solution is definitely on."
(Angelo Roncalli was 76, not 78.)
Cardinal Ratzinger had repeatedly stated he would like to retire to a Bavarian village and dedicate himself to writing books, but more recently, he told friends he was ready to "accept any charge God placed on him." After the death of John Paul II on April 2, 2005 Ratzinger ceased functioning as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. As he is now Pope, it will be up to him to decide who will follow him in the role of prefect.

In April 2005, before his election as pope, he was identified as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine.

Election

On April 19, 2005 Cardinal Ratzinger was elected as the successor to Pope John Paul II on the second day of the papal conclave after four ballots. Coincidentally, April 19 is the feast of St. Leo IX, a German pope and saint.

Cardinal Ratzinger had hoped to retire peacefully and said that "At a certain point, I prayed to God 'please don't do this to me'...Evidently, this time He didn't listen to me."

Before his first appearance at the balcony of Saint Peter's Basilica after becoming pope, he was announced by the Jorge Cardinal Medina Estévez, protodeacon of the College of Cardinals. Cardinal Medina Estévez first addressed the massive crowd as "dear(est) brothers and sisters" in Italian, Spanish, French, German and English — each language receiving cheers from the international crowd — before continuing in Latin. He announced the decision with the words:

Benedict XVI is introduced to the crowd gathered in Saint Peter's SquareFratelli e sorelle carissimi; queridísimos hermanos y hermanas; bien chers frères et sœurs; liebe Brüder und Schwestern; :
Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum:
Habemus Papam!
Eminentissimum ac Reverendissimum Dominum,
Dominum Iosephum,
Sanctæ Romanæ Ecclesiæ Cardinalem Ratzinger,
qui sibi nomen imposuit Benedicti decimi sexti.
Which translates to:

Dear brothers and sisters,
I announce to you a great joy:
We have a Pope!
The most Eminent and Reverend Lord,
the Lord Joseph
Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church Ratzinger,
who has given himself the name of Benedict the Sixteenth.
At the balcony, Benedict's first words to the crowd, before he gave the traditional Urbi et Orbi blessing, were, in Italian:

Cari fratelli e sorelle, dopo il grande Papa Giovanni Paolo Secondo, i signori cardinali hanno eletto me, un semplice e umile lavoratore nella vigna del Signore.
Mi consola il fatto che il Signore sa lavorare ed agire anche con strumenti insufficienti e soprattutto mi affido alle vostre preghiere.
Nella gioia del Signore risorto, fiduciosi nel suo aiuto permanente, andiamo avanti. Il Signore ci aiuterà e Maria sua Santissima Madre starà dalla nostra parte. Grazie.
And in English:

Dear brothers and sisters, after the great Pope John Paul II, the Cardinals have elected me, a simple and humble labourer in the vineyard of the Lord.
The fact that the Lord knows how to work and to act even with inadequate instruments comforts me, and above all I entrust myself to your prayers.
In the joy of the Risen Lord, let us move forward, confident of his unfailing help. The Lord will help us and Mary, his Most Holy Mother, will be on our side. Thank you.
He then gave the blessing to the people.

Choice of name

The choice of the name Benedict (Latin "the blessed") is significant. Benedict XVI used his first General Audience in St. Peter's Square, on April 27, 2005, to explain to the world on why he chose the name:

"Filled with sentiments of awe and thanksgiving, I wish to speak of why I chose the name Benedict. Firstly, I remember Pope Benedict XV, that courageous prophet of peace, who guided the Church through turbulent times of war. In his footsteps I place my ministry
in the service of reconciliation and harmony between peoples. Additionally, I recall Saint Benedict of Norcia, co-patron of Europe, whose life evokes the Christian roots of Europe. I ask him to help
us all to hold firm to the centrality of Christ in our Christian life: May Christ always take first place in our thoughts and actions!"


Early days of Papacy

Pope Benedict has confounded the expectations of many in the early days of his papacy by his gentle public persona and his promise to listen. It is notable that he has used an open popemobile, saying that he wants to be closer to the people. Also, his coat of arms dropped the papal tiara which was replaced by a simple mitre. During his inaugural Mass, the previous custom of all the cardinals submitting was replaced by having 12 people, representing cardinals, clergy, religious, a married couple and their child, and newly confirmed people, submit to him.

Theology of Pope Benedict XVI

Pope Benedict XVIPope Benedict XVI has taken positions similar to his predecessor, John Paul II, and has been a staunch defender of Catholic doctrine. He has made it clear that he intends to maintain traditions, and not give in to modern pressures to change fundamental Church dogma and teaching on such issues as birth control, abortion, and same-sex marriage. Benedict maintains the Church's opposition to moral relativism, which he sees as producing views ranging "from one extreme to the other: from Marxism to liberalism, even to libertinism; from collectivism to radical individualism; from atheism to a vague religious mysticism; from agnosticism to syncretism, and so forth."

Benedict's ecclesiology places much emphasis on the institutions of the Catholic Church as the instrument by which God's message manifests itself on Earth: a view of the Church's role which tends to resist pressure to submit to external social trends. As such, he does not view the search for moral truth as a dialectic and incremental process, arguing that essential matters of faith and morals must be determined at the universal level: "the universal church ... takes precedence, ontologically and temporally, over the individual local churches." Accordingly he is often seen as a key player in the centralization of the hierarchy under John Paul II.

Pope Benedict XVIIn a pre-conclave mass in St. Peter's Basilica, he warned, "We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as definitive and has as its highest value one's own ego and one's own desires."

Benedict has strongly opposed liberation theology. He has acknowledged the good aspects of charismatic Catholicism while at the same time "providing some cautions."

Furthermore, he has spoken positively about the Vatican II council and has shown no evidence that he intends to reverse or limit the decisions of that council. He has, however, stated in books and interviews that Vatican II did not overrule earlier doctrine, but applied the teachings of the Apostles and church fathers to the contemporary world. Benedict has also spoken out against post-conciliar innovations, especially liturgical novelties, and continues to remind the faithful that the Council did not entirely do away with the former rite and many of its noble features.

Benedict is a theologian in a modern orthodox vein. His theology aims at a synthesis of Thomism, philosophical personalism (with such proponents as Martin Buber, John Paul II — in his case, however, tempered by phenomenology, and, more recently, Leon Kass) and the 'nouvelle théologie' of Henri de Lubac and Hans Urs von Balthasar. This is a sharp contrast with the school of thought, until recently ascendent in the theological academy of Europe and the United States, represented by Karl Rahner, Hans Küng, and Edward Schillebeeckx.

At one of the first masses of his pontificate he urged Catholics to show a greater devotion to the "Eucharistic Jesus."