GERMAN Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the strict defender of Catholic orthodoxy for the past 23 years, took the name Benedict XVI.

THE first message a new Pope sends to the world is encoded in the name he chooses.

THEY’VE plotted and deceived, they’ve been warlike, corrupt and power-hungry and they’ve sired children they shamelessly promoted: the history of popes, as cardinals mull who will succeed John Paul II, is decidedly murky.