Popes are hugely like Supreme Court justices. John XXIII was a compromise because he was supposed to be a doddering old fool who could do no damage, and the church could bide its time after the lengthy and formidable papacy of Piux XII. They were wrong.
I posted in another diary a comment with some reflections about the selection of Benedict XVI. I have done a little research, and he seems to be the sixth German pope. The last one, Victor II, served about a thousand years ago. Those papacies lasted between less than a year and about five years, an average of two-and-a-half years.
There is something that is historically profound about this selection that a lot of people seem to have missed. After 455 years of Italian popes, for two successive elections, the cardinals have looked beyond Italy to select the bishop of Rome. It shows that there is now a deep recognition that the church is larger than Italy. Almost certainly, they will look the next time to the third world. They have had an opportunity to see some of the younger folks, like Rodriguez of Honduras, and I am sure they will go south the next time out of the gate, and the next time out of the gate definitely is not decades in the future.
This new pope has done two things since his election:
- He chose a name, and there is something interesting about his choice of "Benedict." The new pope's immediate namesake, Benedict XV, served during World War I (actually, 1914-1922) and in a subtle way, he repudiated the strict Vatican orthodoxy practiced under his predecessor Pius X; indeed, Ratzinger, who is a real theologian, actually was a liberal until the student riots of 1968. I have read that John Paul II wanted to issue an infallible decree about women and the priesthood, and only Ratzinger was able to talk him off the ledge. Benedict XV was a painfully shy man who was an excellent administrator. Benedict XVI also has been said to have both of those qualities.
- The other thing Benedict has done has blessed the crowd.
Let me assure you that as something of a student of papal history, I am
less excited about this choice than the average Joe may be, but I am in favor of waiting till he does something before we take too decided a position on his papacy.