Pope tells cardinals of the ‘fright’ he felt when elected

POPE BENEDICT XVI recalled the “fright” he felt at being elected Pope, telling cardinals during his year-end speech yesterday that he never imagined he would be chosen and only agreed to it because he had great faith in God.

Benedict reviewed what he called the "great events" that affected the Catholic Church in 2005, highlighting the suffering and death of Pope John Paul II, the 40th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council and the World Youth Day celebrations in Cologne, Germany.

He left the April 19 conclave that elected him Pope to the end of the lengthy speech, saying he felt "not a little bit of fright" when he was chosen by the College of Cardinals to succeed John Paul. "Such a job was completely beyond anything I could ever have imagined as my vocation," he told the cardinals and Roman curia gathered in the Sala Clementina of the Vatican's Apostolic Palace. "As such, it was only with a great act of faith in God that I could say in obedience my 'yes' to this choice."