Pope Benedict’s success is down to priorities, style and content

LAST Sunday’s gatherings in Rome, Poland and elsewhere to mark the first anniversary of Pope John Paul’s death were exactly what you would have expected: big, atmospheric, emotional events.

The memory of a great man lives among his followers, in the Church and the world. No surprise there.

The big surprise is the man who now sits on the Chair of Peter. It is almost a year since the world greeted the news of a Ratzinger papacy with some trepidation. What had the cardinals done, many wondered at the time.